Secret Life
by assassinhayd
Summary: After another night of fighting X.A.N.A, the Lyoko warriors feel like nothing could go wrong. But after an accident with the scanners turns one boy into two...the gang are left with too many questions. Who are they really? Why is it so hard to trust them? What is so secretive about their past they have to lie to try and fit in anyway?
1. The Problem with Perfect Nights

Hey, thanks for reading my story...at times this might be a bit slow, but give it a while, and it will get better, I promise. So...on to the disclaimer stuff, then to the story:

Code Lyoko is not mine, and is the intellectual property of Moonscoop and its associates, I own nothing but my character(s), this story is only for entertainment purposes and is not real a real Code Lyoko story. (Please don't sue me...)

Chapter 1: "The Problem with "Perfect" Nights

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**Setting: Just outside the factory**

**Time: Late at night**

**POV: "Boy"**

The Lyoko warriors emerged from the factory exhausted. Another night fighting X.A.N.A, and they were all ready to hit the hay, with Odd leading up the call for bed. All of the others laughed and all agreed that it had been a long night and that it was time to go home and sleep until the cows came home. The group congratulated each other on a job well done. They all felt that it was a nice and calm night, and did what they could to enjoy it. Odd was the first to leave, followed by Aelita and Jeremy. Ulrich stayed a couple of minutes to talk to Yumi, and then they both left after Yumi gave a small peck on the cheek to Ulrich. She ran off, and Ulrich seemed to meander in a daze back home. Everything seemed right in the world. What they didn't know however was that this was only the beginning of something totally new, something that they couldn't expect.

After the warriors had left the bridge to head their separate ways, something started happening just outside the factory. A boy, no older than 14 came running out-of-town and along the riverbank outside the abandoned factory. He was being chased by a group of older boys all yelling and screaming and threatening his life. The boy was getting tired, he had run from the group for too long that night, and unable to lose them no matter what he did. He could hear his heartbeat in his head, and his lungs felt like they were both a ton. He looked around for a way out, and then the boy eyed the factory and ran towards it. The group pursued. The boy spied ropes leading from a large beam down to a freight elevator. He started towards it then realized something...

"_Too obvious"_ he thought.

He turned to his right and decided to run along the long platform that ran along the higher level of the abandoned factory until he found some stairs leading through an old assembly area. He could hear the group trying to find him. He thought he had finally lost them and was about to stroll away in full confidence, when he accidentally tripped over a piece of re-bar. The clang could be heard throughout the factory and the boy winced and froze as he heard the clang fade to silence. He heard one of the boys chasing him raise the alarm. The group the alarm and the boy swore he heard them call for bloody murder. _His _murder.

The boy had no time to lose. He vaulted over conveyor belts, slid under robotic assembly arms, and then ran up a wall near the ruined stairs, barely gripping the edge of the next landing with his fingertips. He pulled himself using arms that felt like noodles, and ran. Ran like he had never had run before. He came across a boiler room. It seemed like a dead-end. His eyes darted around looking for a way out. But then the boy saw a small green light shining from the top of a ladder. He ran towards it just as the group rounded the corner and saw him. They all bellowed, and when the boy ran, it felt like outrunning the bulls of Spain. The group caught up to him just as he slipped through the small hole at the top of the ladder.

The boy dropped down into a large computer lab, and rolled to break his fall. The boy gasped as he saw what seemed like a large computer from out of a science fiction movie. But he didn't have long to admire as the rest of the lab, as the restless group was catching up to him. This way seemed like another dead-end, until he spied a small hatch in the corner. He ran over to the hatch and slid it open. He found another ladder. The boy was getting tired of ladders, but had no choice if he wanted to escape the horde following him. He quickly vaulted around and climbed down the ladder. He found himself in another weird room full of wires and weird coffin-looking tubes.

"_Gosh...another dead end?" _the boy thought looking around.

He looked around the room quickly...desperate to get away. He knew that this could have easily been fixed if had just taken the elevator, but then...something caught his eye. He saw a hatch in the center of the room.

"_Only way out..."_ he thought

He ran towards it and started turning the wheel on the hatch. He finally got it open and looked down into the hatch opening. The boy looked down and saw a mass of glowing lights and more wires. He also could hear an electronic whine. He gasped at the size of this room, and was about to leap down into the room to the tall tower in the center of the room when a big hand seized him from behind. The group that was chasing him had finally caught up to him. And the boy realized wasn't for a peaceful chat. One of the mean boys picked up the boy and then kicked close the hatch. All of the boys looked like they all had a score to settle, and the boy realized that he couldn't take them all on at once. Someone pulled out a switch blade and flicked it open. One of the other boys saw this and punched the boy with the switch blade.

"Hey! We agreed...we were here to just teach the whelp a lesson, not kill him!" said the boy who had punched him

The boy with the switch blade sighed and then put away his knife.

"Hey...shrimp..." said someone from the back of the group. The group separated so a very large boy could walk over to the boy, and then all the boys walked around the nervous and scared boy as some the others snuck up behind the boy and pinned his arms behind his back so that he couldn't retaliate.

"Thought you could cheat us out of the deal huh?" the big, mean boy said with a sniff

He wiped his finger under his nose to clean it and then wound up and spit a loogie over his shoulder. He continued to walk towards the boy as the boy tried to struggle to break free from the boys keeping him from escaping, no dice, the boys holding his arms were two times bigger than him, and then the mean boy was a whole head taller, than all the others, and about the size of a rhino. The mean boy got closer and closer. The rest of the group formed a circle around the boy, closing of any escape, the boys holding his arms smiled as the mean boy got close enough to whisper into his ear threateningly.

"Thought we would never find out huh...?" the mean boy said as he popped his knuckles somewhere near the boy's waist.

"We don't like that!" shouted one of the boys that were pinning the boy's arms behind his back, twisting his arm all the harder.

"No...!" gasped the boy mostly in surprise, and in pain

"We don't believe you!" said one of the other boys from the group in the circle surrounding the boy and his captors

"It wasn't me!" gasped the boy, which only elicited more arm twisting.

"You won't talk your way out of this one..." said the mean boy taking a step back and sizing up his opponent.

The boy closed his eyes and waited for the end. But he couldn't keep himself from peeking. He peeked just as the mean boy wound up and slammed into his abdomen. The boy clenched his eyes closed as the fist hit. Then came a barrage of hits. The mean boy seemed to punch and kick every possible square inch on the boy. After the boy felt like his abdomen was going to explode, his eyes were black, and his arms felt like they had been twisted clear off at his shoulder. The black eyes made it hard for the boy to see what was happening, but he was able to spot the group surrounding them prepare for a full on assault on his injured internal organs through his bruised external flesh. The mean boy stopped and gave a nod, and then the two boys holding his arms let go. The boy crumpled to the floor of the coffin room. The boy thought that this was an ironic place to die, since he figured the end was coming.

"Have at him..." said the mean boy stepping back to let the group have room to get at the boy.

The group cheered and rushed to get a piece of the boy. The boy got battered and bruised and bruised and battered. He got kicked, and punched, and all sorts of injuries. He even thought he felt his leg break, but that was just two of the boys kicking the same bruise on his leg, at exactly the same time. It all ended when the mean boy pushed aside the group to grab the boy's jacket and haul him up into the air. The mean boy stared at the boy's black and blue face. The boy felt drunk off the pain that he felt, his head lolled back and forth trying to focus in with his two black eyes on the mean boy. His mouth tried forming words, but he had a few splits in both lips, filling his mouth the tang of blood and instead of words coming out, blood went in and all that came out of his mouth was a bit of a gurgle and a groan.

All of the sudden, the computer in the lab above whirred to life, which startled the group.

"Time to go..." said the mean boy signaling to the rest of the group.

Most of the group jumped into action and ran up the ladder whooping and hollering. The mean boy gave the boy one more look over and then tossed him into one of the coffin-looking tubes. The mean boy sneered as he gave the boy one more kick to the head. The boy's head lolled to one side and he felt like he was going to pass out. The mean boy then picked up a sheet from the corner and threw it over half of the boy, hiding him from view. He then took out two bullets, and placed them in the hands of the boy in the tube. The signature of the gang and what happened to the people who crossed them. The mean boy knew that if the boy were to survive this, that he might end up regretting giving the boy these. He finally decided to keep that from ever happening, and he snapped his fingers and another boy handed him a length of rope and then the mean boy proceeded to tie up the boy.

Now half wrapped up in the sheet, tied up and with a bullet in each hand, the boy looked up at the mean boy and tried to form words again. The mean boy scrunched his face and punched the boy, knocking him out. The mean boy then spit on the boy, and kicked dirt in his face. The computer above intensified in whirring. The mean boy looked nervous that karma was going to do something in response to this all out beat-a-thon. He went to leave with the group of boys, but then turned and walked back to look at the boy slumped at the bottom of the tube. He kicked his legs into the tube so that his whole body was sitting inside tube, and it was almost impossible to see the boy from the outside of the tube. The mean boy also took one last look and decided to do something. He took his lighter out of his pocket and lit it, just as he was going to throw it towards the boy, one of the other boys leapt to stop him and the other boy left in the room shouted at the mean boy.

"Calm down...", said the mean boy, pointing to the one that shouted at him, and holding the lighter out of reach of the other boy, and pushing him out of arm's reach of the lighter. The mean boy knew that he could end up like the boy if he was to light him on fire, so he decided to do something different.

The mean boy bent down and placed the lit lighter next to the unconscious boy, he knew it seemed a bit weak, but it was better than ending up in one of these coffins himself.

"Let's go..." the mean boy said, turning to the last of group and then climbing up the ladder. The last three boys left in the room climbed up

Most of the group was already up in the computer lab, goofing off and looking around for anything valuable There wasn't much however, most everything of value was the wires in the walls, but the walls were solid steel, and hard to break open, so the group looked elsewhere for things. Another small group were graffitiing their gang sign on the steel wall of the lab. The others were jumping around goofing off. Some of the group was trying to look what was on the computer thing, but most of the files on the computer were locked, and the things they could get access to made no sense.

"Virtualization? What's that?" asked one of the boys noticing a window pop up as he was typing in random combinations of keystrokes into the computer to see what would happen.

The boy at the computer typed whatever he could to see what would happen, he wasn't very good at it, considering they had just beat up and left their only good hacker in a tube one level down to die. He continued to punch in random letter and numbers into a new program screen and then hit "enter" just to see what would happen. Not much happened, but then the whirring of the computer started to grow into a feverish pitch.

"Oi!", shouted the mean boy noticing the chaos going on

"Let's go!", he shouted.

All of the group whooped and hollered as they climbed up the small ladder and left the factory through the boiler room, out through the assembly room and back outside.

Back inside the coffin-looking room, the boy in the tube stirred as the computer reached a feverish whir. The boy tried to sit up but couldn't because of the cramped quarters he was in. Up in the lab, the group's fiddling with the computer had more consequences than they planned. Windows started popping up as the programs they inadvertently started, began to run. A floor below, the boy had almost wiggled his way out of the tube, when the doors to the tube slammed shut.

"What?", said the boy, squinted to see what had happened through his black eyes.

He tried pushing the doors open, but it was too late. The computer's programming kept going, and there was nothing stopping it now. The boy stood up gingerly in the tube, shaking off the sheet and the rope that was loosely tied around him, and dropping the bullets he had in his hands. He picked up the lighter and clicked it because it had gone out. The boy was glad that he had, because as he did, the lights cut out in the tube.

"Hellooooo?", shouted the boy, "Hellooooo?" he tried desperately hoping that there was someone left from the group who would help him, but considering the beating he just took, it seemed unlikely

The tube didn't stay dark for long, a beam of light came out of the bottom of the sides of the tube, the boy realized that this was no longer a situation he could control. The beam swept from head to toe of the boy. The boy thought he had just been scanned for something. But he didn't know what. In the lab above, things started to go wrong. Windows opened up on the computer screen, large flashing large red exclamation points, and blaring alarm sounds opened up all over the screen. The boy in the tube started pounded on the doors of the tube as the scanner paused at the top suddenly and then made another pass over him, blinding his eyes as it passed back over. He clicked close the lighter, and sighed as the scanner stopped at his eyes, and the boy couldn't do anything about it. The computer whirred even more, and the alarm tones did nothing to try to quiet the situation. Suddenly, the alarms stopped, and the computer righted itself as it worked through the makeshift program the group punched in. The programs continued to run, and the situation in the tube started to escalate. The scanner stopped hovering over the boy's watering eyes, and moved up to the top of his head.

The scanner had stopped its "scanning" and had sunk into the base of the tube. The lights cut out once again in the tube, and the boy started trying to look around for a way out in the dark. The boy clicked the lighter again and looked around to try to pry the doors open. Suddenly the lights came back on again, blinding the boy. He clicked the lighter close again and looked around to try to see if he had changed anything. He held up his hands to shield his eyes as another, larger scanner came out and started its slow climb up the boy's body.

"Helooooo?!" shouted the boy, shielding his eyes He knew there was probably no one left outside, but he hoped someone would hear him.

The scanner had reached the top of the boy's head and then quickly sunk down and passed over the boy again, blinding him as the scanner passed over his eyes for a fourth time. The computer screen in the lab had a window pop after the first scanner pass. It showed the boy's body, standing tall, arms outstretched from his sides, his body formed in a grid-like skin. After the second pass of the scanner, another window popped up with an almost identical grid-like form of the boy. A quick ping and the two figures changed into two costumed versions of the same grid form. The whirring built to a deafening pitch, and then a surge of energy pulsed through the wires of the computer and the wires of the tube where the boy stood. The surge was over as soon as it started, and then the whirring stopped. The lights went off in the lab, and in the coffin-looking room. The tube that the boy was in hissed open slowly...but the tube was empty...

The lab shut almost everything down, except a small lighted hub in the middle of the lab. The hub lit up and a holomap projected itself out of the middle of the hub into the air above it. The map formed itself into a map of a virtual world, complete with four separate sectors of different environments, all extending from a central hub. The map rotated around this hub in an almost erratic motion, circling the hub until it rested like the needle of a compass. A small dot appeared on side of the map and blinked a couple of times like a sonar, then slowly seemed to dim until it pinged almost less and less, reaching a death like state. And then another dot on the complete opposite side of the holomap appeared. The dot pinged like a sonar, but in a different, lower tone. The dots pinged one after the other like they were playing a large game of virtual ping-pong. Then, the first dot started to fade, then the other dot followed suit and slowed until both dots on the opposite sides of the maps, pinged to a point that they were almost not there.

Then, a sudden bright beam of light emitted from the hub, and spread out across the lab, and then extended out from the hub, filling the room. The light didn't stop there though, the light penetrated the walls of the factory, spreading outside and engulfing the world. A faint tape rewinding sound was heard, and then the light faded away...

End of Chapter 1

Next Chapter: To the Factory!

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Phew! It's done! *UPDATE* The second chapter is now finished, and posted! I have no idea how long this story will be...Please tell me what you think about it. I know I didn't give much detail about who everyone was...and that was on purpose, I want this story to start of with a bit of a mystery.


	2. To the Factory!

Thanks for all of you who read my first chapter. I wanted to set up the main premise of my story before the chapter was over. I'm going to cut up some of the story I've already written into manageable chunks now that I'm done with the first chapter, so that those of you who do read this aren't bogged down under the length of each chapter. So without further adieu...chapter 2!

Chapter 2: "To the Factory!"

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**Setting:The nearby Junior High boarding school**

**Time: The previous day**

**POV: Jeremy**

The sun rose the previous day over the nearby Junior High boarding school. Most students were still sleeping in their beds, oblivious of what happened that next day, all except five students. The five students were up and awake, all gathered together in one of the student's rooms, discussing what had happened that next day.

"I didn't trigger a return to the past..." said one of the students, rather bluntly

"Well, Jeremy...if you didn't...who did?" said another with pink hair, posing the question on everyone's mind

"I'm worried that X.A.N.A triggered it Aelita." said the boy named Jeremy with a nervous look on his face

"Well, what's X.A.N.A.'s plan?" said a boy with brown hair, folding his arms in the corner. He didn't like beating around the bush, and wanted an answer now.

"I don't know Ulrich...but I don't like the situation, or the timing." said Jeremy with a shrug.

"What do you mean Jeremy?" said the other girl in the room. She too wanted an answer, and felt like she wasn't getting it.

"I mean, Yumi, that after our last mission, everything went well...a little too well if you ask me." said Jeremy, getting a little fed up with the questions. It was a bit of a drag sometimes being the smartest of the group, and being one of the only ones who could answer all the questions everyone had.

"Yeah, those monsters were a little scarce, just like breakfast in my stomach" said the last boy in the room, he hunched over as his stomach growled. He too was getting impatient with the questions, and just wanted to eat before he went class. Everyone laughed at the boy's feeble joke.

"Okay...we get it Odd, we'll figure this out later, but I want everyone in the factory after dinner tonight so we can run a quick scan and figure if anything is up." said Jeremy, glad to finally have a break.

All of the students in the room nodded in agreement then went their separate ways. Odd rushed off to breakfast, and Ulrich, Yumi and Aelita went after him and then went to class. Jeremy decided to go to the factory before class. He knew that his stomach would regret it, but he wanted to know with a surety there was no chance that X.A.N.A was up to his usual tricks. He ran into the park just outside the school. He found the manhole cover to the sewer that he and his friends used as the passage between school and the factory where he and his friends hung out and fought X.A.N.A. He pried up the cover and then climbed down the ladder into the sewer. Jeremy crinkled his nose at the smell, but he couldn't stay, he grabbed one of the carefully hidden scooters from behind a large pipe and unfolded it. He quickly scooted along the walkway of the sewer until he came across another ladder leading to the surface. Jeremy climbed up the ladder and slid open a hatch at the top. He blinked as he stared into the bright sun and then climbed out of the hole and stepped on the bridge next to the old abandoned factory.

Jeremy ran into the factory, and grabbed hold of a long piece of rope attached to a large beam above his head, and swung down a level, right next to the old freight elevator in the center of the factory. He entered the elevator and punched the button to go down. The elevator ground to a halt a couple of floors down. Jeremy opened up the elevator control panel and typed in the code to open the door to the computer lab. The door hissed open and Jeremy ran into the lab. Jeremy booted up the supercomputer and ran a quick scan of all the towers on Lyoko. Nothing showed up... that didn't surprise Jeremy considering they had just defeated X.A.N.A that next day and he wouldn't have had the time to launch a new attack.

But Jeremy did notice that there were a couple of small anomalies in the Forest and the Mountain sectors. He also thought that the supercomputer might had been tampered with recently, a couple of programs that he normally used were glitched, like the virtualization program he used to send the others to Lyoko, and there was an other program window opened that had already been run sometime last night after the group had left. Jeremy frowned, he was certain this had something to do with X.A.N.A. He marked the locations of the two anomalies and made a mental note to send the rest of the group to check them out when they got together later that night. He also ran a debugger on all the programs to try to find out what X.A.N.A was up to if he _was_ in charge of this whole thing after all.

Jeremy grabbed his bag and left with five minutes left to get to class. Jeremy left the supercomputer to continue tracking the anomalies and to keep an eye on the debugging. He also left it on if he needed to get a scan from his computer, but only in the extreme case X.A.N.A reared his ugly head. Once gone, the supercomputer started to take on a life of its own. Through the course of the tracking and debugging, the holomap popped up out of the hub in the center of the room and spun to life. The two dots that Jeremy marked started to ping again. The two dots pinged slowly like a dying sonar. The debugger finished running on the virtualization program, and then started running on the new program from the next night. Then, the two dots started to gain in power. They picked up speed and tone, then...they vanished once they reached a full power.

(End Chapter 2)

Next Chapter: "The Next Day After Last"

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Okay...I'm going to leave it there. It seems the perfect spot to cut this before I get too long-winded. Thanks for reading so far,*UPDATE* Chapter 3 is now up! I've been working on this story for a while now, and just now have worked up the courage to post it online. Tell me what you think, feel free to ask any question.


	3. The Next Day After Last

Okay, I'm back with another chapter. In this chapter we learn a bit more about those two dots and who they are. I had a hard time trying to keep this short, given that everything on Lyoko is so colorful and descriptive, and trying to tie together everything that happened in the first and second chapters. So instead of talking about it...here's Chapter 3!

Chapter 3: "The Next Day After Last"

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**Setting: Lyoko**

**Time: Later that afternoon**

**POV: "Boy"**

On Lyoko, the dots weren't just that, one of the dots in the Forest section started to stir, as the boy from the next night woke up with a pounding headache. He didn't know where he was, nothing seemed familiar, but it looked like the forest in the park not far from...the factory! A flood of memories came back from him and made his head pound even more. He held his head in his hand until the headache left as clenched his eyes due to the pain. He went to stand up gingerly, but his knees buckled under the stress, causing his eyes to flash and black out for a second. The boy clenched his eyes tighter to try to keep the pain at bay. He took a couple tentative breaths to steady himself and then slowly stood up. His body hurt, the gang he ran with did a number on him. He realized there was no going back to them unless he wanted another round. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face, to try to relax himself. When he pulled his hands away from his face, his vision cleared and he looked around. Something wasn't right...this wasn't the factory...this wasn't even the forest in the park. Where was this? This was a forest, but like a forest that he had seen before...the trees were floating in the air, and the ground was nothing but green and splotchy. Everything looked like he was in a video game. This was not right...he started to panic.

He ran as fast as his injured legs could hobble him to try to guess where he was. But not even that felt right. He looked down and realized he wasn't in the clothes he started out the night with. He was wearing a gray t-shirt and a black hoodie, and a pair of ripped blue jeans when he started out the night. What he was wearing was _not_ that. He was wearing some sort of medieval, cream-colored tunic, and a pair brown pants with a high waistline. He was also wearing a pair of stylish brown knee-high boots, and a pair of brown cuffed gloves with the fingers cut off. Under the tunic he had a billowy, white shirt, with a high collar. And crisscrossing the tunic there was a system of belts wrapped around his chest. One belt wrapped around his right shoulder that looped under his arm and around to his back, and connected to another one that wrapped tightly across his chest and then wrapped around his back connecting back to the belt around his arm.

The boy walked around in circles to try to see all that he had on. He thought he looked a lot like a character from one of his favorite video games. All he was missing was a couple of blades coming out of the top of his wrists. He clenched and unclenched his fists a bit to see if he did, like the character from the game. When they didn't pop out, he felt disappointed. This was a completely different world, or at least he thought it was... why couldn't he have blades coming out of his arms?

"_Am I dead...?"_, he thought

He reached down and pinched himself just to make sure. Yep...it hurt...but that still didn't explain if he was dead, where he was...or why...He looked back at his ridiculous outfit and back at his fists, he held his fist up to his eyes and clenched his fist one more time, and suddenly...a long thin blade about six inches long came out of the top of his wrist through a small slit in his glove, almost stabbing his fist as it passed over it, and almost gouging his eye out. The boy shouted and flung his arms around in surprise, almost falling over and off the thin green platform he was standing on. Once he had gained his balance again, he looked back at his hand. The blade was gone! The boy frowned and then clenched his fist again, this time pointing his hand away from him before he did so. He clenched his fist and the blade came out of his wrist again. This time he made sure to angle his hand before the blade came out so it didn't stab him. The blade was a steely gray and gave a small "ting" as the boy tapped a finger on the blade.

"_All right!",_ the boy thought, excited to have things finally going his way. He pumped his fist up in the air in a cheesy pose, and then put his other hand down by his side.

What he didn't realize however is that the blade wasn't on one arm only. He accidentally lowered his other arm and clenched his fist in excitement, and another blade come out of his other wrist, slicing his leg and causing him to stumble and fall backwards off the platform into nothingness. The boy screamed, he didn't know what the watery looking thing was below, but he had a feeling that if he were to fall into it was probably not good. The blades on his wrists vanished as he fell, sheathed back into his wrists and vanishing from view

"_Great...even if they were helpful for this..."_, he thought as he continued his uncontrolled free-fall.

Suddenly, another thing came out of the bottom of his wrists, some sort of small compartment with a small launcher looking thing in the center.

"What's this?!", shouted the boy as he continued to fall, hoping fate knew what it was doing, because he certainly didn't.

The launcher seemed even more useless than the blades in this situation, the blades might have been good for grabbing into something and break his fall, given the fact if there was anything in front of the boy to grab. So the boy decided to not give up on the launcher quite yet, seeing as he didn't have any other options. The boy stared at the launcher, expecting something to happen, since the boy didn't know the first thing about operating things in this crazy, messed up world. But suddenly the launcher extruded a tall, round, silvery, cylinder. The boy didn't know what was going on, he wasn't doing this. The boy was quickly reaching the water, with useless equipment and nothing to do about it. The cylinder then did something strange, the cylinder suddenly sprouted a couple of prongs, and launched itself skyward, attached to a long length of coiled, black rope.

"A grappling hook!", the boy realized, glad that he wasn't going to fall into the water, as long as the hook reached something before he fell to his death.

The hook caught hold of one of the trees above his head and stopped his fall with a sudden jerk, the boy was only about five feet from the surface of the water stuff. The line then slowly and jerkily pulled the boy up towards the platform. Once he reached the bottom of the platform, he used his own strength to pull himself up to the top of the platform. The boy then followed the rope back to the end of the line and found the hook part. He unhooked it from the tree it thankfully caught on to and looked at it. The rope was long and was starting to coil itself into knots.

The boy sighed, now that he was safe, he had no idea what to do with the long length of rope protruding out of his arm from a weird launcher he didn't know about until a few minutes ago. He then got an idea. He clenched his fist and out popped the blade from the other side of his arm. He wrapped the rope around the blade and was about to cut himself free from the rope, when a thought popped into his head. Even if he did cut himself free, he would still have a small length of rope trailing from this launcher...thingy...and he would look kind of silly running around looking like that. The boy sighed and unwrapped the rope from his wrist blade and then unclenched his fist, sheathing the blade.

The boy then heard a curious beeping, the boy looked around to see what was going on. He then realized the sound was coming from his wrist launcher. He looked at the launcher from all sides and then found a small button he hadn't noticed before. He pushed the button hesitantly, and then the rope started retracting at an alarming rate back into the launcher. When the hook got back to the launcher, it stopped at the opening and then the beeping noise stopped.

"_What the heck was that?"_ thought the boy.

He wondered how this thing worked. Everything in this crazy world seemed more puzzling than the next, and the boy still hadn't figured out how the trees were floating in mid-air. The boy turned his attention back to the launcher, and he decided to figure out how this thing worked before continuing on.

"_It might be important...in...some way."_ the boy thought hesitantly.

The boy looked over the strange device, hoping some sort of instructions might be printed on it, or if the instructions seemed to jump out at him from somewhere in his mind. Nothing happened.

"_Well this is exciting..."_ thought the boy.

The hook parts of the grappling hook then sprang back into the cylinder and the cylinder retracted into the launcher, and the launcher popped back into his wrist.

"_Hey! Come back!" _the boy shouted in his mind as he felt his wrist where the launcher had sheathed itself. He couldn't feel where the launcher was, and he thought he had offended it in...some way.

"_Nothing makes sense in this place!"_ thought the boy, throwing his arms up in defeat.

The boy looked around one more time to try to find out finally where he was. This was definitely some sort of forest, but not like a forest he had ever seen. He hobbled down the only path he saw and continued to walk until he saw something up ahead. A cloud of white looking bubbles was buzzing his way. The boy gasped and hid behind a tree, he didn't know what they were, or if they saw him. He peeked around the corner and saw that the bubbles had stopped about ten feet off from where he was hiding. He didn't know whether they were the enemy of this world, or some sort of friend. The boy decided he would go talk to the bubbles. Then the boy stopped and thought about what he had just thought.

"_Talking...to bubbles?"_ thought the boy. The boy shook his head at the ridiculous idea. Then again, this wouldn't have been the first crazy thing he had done today.

To be cautious, he extended his wrist blades, then quietly walked around the trunk of the tree to face the bubbles.

"H...h...hello?" said the boy nervously.

The bubbles seemed to all turn and face him.

"D...do you know where I am? I'm kind of lost..." the realized how weak that sounded, like he was a scared child talking to a police officer asking if he had seen his mommy.

"What...is...this...place..." the boy enunciated. He still couldn't believe he was talking to bubbles. The bubbles seemed to just float in place, and there was a slight buzzing sound as they floated in the air.

The boy decided it was hopeless to try to communicate with the bubbles, and turned to slowly walk away down another path he saw. He hoped he didn't disturb the bubbles, and tiptoed away. Suddenly, the bubbles started to follow him. The boy picked up his pace, but the bubbles then picked up their pace. The boy then broke into a weak run. His legs still weren't in any shape for an all out sprint, so he hoped he could lose the bubbles before it had to come to that. The bubbles were right behind him, he could hear them buzzing. Then the boy wondered why he was running...from bubbles. The boy stopped and turned to face the bubbles. The bubbles stopped and hovered about five feet away from him. The boy reached out a hand in a bit of a mock handshake. One of the bubbles slowly glided forward and then hovered a couple of inches above his hand. The bubble then darted down and into his hand and popped. That didn't feel good, it was like being stung. The boy clenched his hand in pain then looked up at the cloud of bubbles as they started to buzz around in angry patterns.

The boy gasped and then turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could. But it wasn't good enough. The boy's legs were good enough for running, and he stumbled and fell. The bubbles caught up to him and surrounded his figure. The bubbles hurt as they popped all over him, every time they popped, he felt a sting, followed by a feeling of numbness. The boy thought that this was the end of his short time on this strange world, and only had one thought on his mind.

He couldn't believe the turn of events that had happened in the short amount of time he had awoken in this strange world

Next Chapter: "Second Guy, Same as the First"

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*UPDATE* Chapter Four is now up! (I hope someone is actually reading this...otherwise these beginning and ending comments would be really embarrassing.)


	4. Second Guy, Same as the First

Hey everybody, thanks for reading my story up to this point. I'm getting close to revealing the names of the "two dots". I hope you stick around to find out for yourself!

Chapter Four: "Second Guy, Same as the First"

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**Setting: Lyoko**

**Time: Later that afternoon, early evening**

**POV:** **"Other Dot"**

Back in the factory, the supercomputer was almost done running its debugging on the makeshift program from the next night. It had already found one bug in the Forest sector, and was working on clearing it of errors. The program then shifted towards the Mountain sector where the debugger had picked up another bug. This bug...just so happened to coincide with the other anomaly Jeremy had tagged, which was now showing signs of life, after being out cold all day.

The other dot was, in fact another person, and he felt his head pounding viciously from...from...he couldn't remember...he thought it had something to do with what happened last night. But he couldn't even remember that. He remembered a beating he got, which would explain the headache he had, but he couldn't remember who beat him senseless like he was now. He clenched his eyes shut due to the throbbing in his head and tried to think. All he remembered was the beating he got, and nothing else, not even his own name. That worried the boy, he opened his eyes and sat up. He was sitting on a large floating island carved out of a large mountain.

"_Well...that's different..."_ thought the boy, standing up slowly on his injured legs.

The boy got up the courage to look around at the mountain he was standing on and then scooted as close to the edge as he could without feeling like he was going to fall off. He looked down and saw nothing but clouds, and a bit of water through the clouds below. He figured he should step away from the edge. He figured it would be a bad idea to get cocky and end up falling in, the water did not look friendly. He went to walk away, and tripped over a tree root.

"_That hurt..."_ thought the boy as he rubbed his knee, thinking that what just happened had happened before...somewhere...in a factory? The boy was having a bad time remembering what had happened to him and why he ended up here. He closed his eyes as another wave of pain radiated from his head and seemed to echo in his knee when it passed. He opened his eyes and looked where he had fallen. Then he noticed something weird.

He looked down at himself and brushed the dirt off of...what the heck was he wearing? He looked himself up and down again one more time before realizing he really was wearing what he was wearing. He was wearing a black, long-sleeve, leather tunic with a hood and a cowl that masked most of his face, he realized as he felt up his face. His pants were also black and instead of leather, they felt like a soft cotton. The pants reached down to his ankles where they flared out to show a pair of stylish (and black) knee-high, leather boots. He also had a pair of tight black leather gloves that ended at the wrist, but met up barely at his wrist with the tunic. Everything also had a bit of padding added to it, almost like armor. He liked the way it looked. He felt like a moving shadow. He even snuck around and threw himself into a wall as if he _was _sneaking around like a wannabe ninja. When he slammed his back into the wall to try sneaking around on a wall, he felt a pain radiate from hip to shoulder. He then realized that his back was not flat. There was a large rifle slung across his shoulder. The boy slung it off of his shoulder and held it in front of himself. The rifle was long (and black), but the boy realized he had no scope...

"_Gee...all this in the get-up, and someone couldn't spring for a scope for this?"_ the boy thought, looking at the elaborate clothes, and then back to the rifle.

He shrugged mentally, and then decided to try the rifle to see its power. The boy squinted into the distance at a rock, perched on a larger rock. He lined up the sights, (_Those_ were still there, the boy noticed with a bit of sarcasm.) Took aim at the rock, and squeezed the trigger. The gun had good recoil, and the bullet stayed true to where the boy aimed, however, where the boy aimed was not the middle of the rock. Without a decent scope, the bullet went where the boy shot, and that was at the edge of the rock. The rock spun around as the bullet hit, and then fell off the larger rock and shattered upon impact with the ground. The boy sighed. There was no way he was going to know how to fire this thing without being able to see where he was firing. He decided to get in some practice with his weapon, he knew if he left to look around without knowing all his weapons and how they worked, he would end up regretting it.

He spotted a tree a ways off on another plateau, its trunk was small, and crooked, so he figured it would be the perfect test to see if he could aim without a scope. He lined up best he could, to the trunk of the tree and the sights on the rifle. He pulled the trigger...once...twice...three times...He raised his head from the rifle to see where the bullets landed. All three zoomed past the leaves on the tree, rustling the branches slightly as they passed. The boy cursed and tried again. But when he pulled the trigger, nothing happened. The clip was empty. The boy ejected the clip and swore as he threw it away.

"_Who gives someone a rifle with only four shots, and no ammo to reload it with?"_ thought the boy. He kept the rifle for the tree and ducked his head in disappointment.

Then he eyed something on his belt he didn't notice before...a whole clip...brand new and everything. It had just blended into his outfit since...it too...was black. He unclasped it from his belt and slid the clip into the chamber. He pulled back the bolt, and aimed once again. He squinted as hard as he could to try to get the shot lined up. When he raised the rifle...the tree seemed was right in front of him! He opened his eyes and realized that the rifle didn't really need a scope. The scope seemed embedded in his eyes! It even had a handy cross hairs for when he got ready to fire. The boy lined up his shot one more time, and then focused on the tree one plateau over once again. This time, when he squeezed the trigger the bullet buried itself deep into the trunk where the boy had aimed.

The boy smiled, at least his equipment wasn't completely useless. He tried shooting the tree three more times, and when he did, he hit the spot he shot the first time every time. On the fourth shot, the bullet lodged so deep, it forced the mangled mess of the other bullets to pop out the other side of the tree. Satisfied that he would be able to survive in this strange world, the boy slung the rifle back over his shoulder and turned to leave. He wandered the strange mountains with his aching legs as long as there was a path to walk over. He walked for about ten minutes, and so far, the boy was getting tired of looking at mountain. He wanted to see if there were other people anywhere, since this place seemed really devoid of...anything...but trees, and rocks. As he walked, he tried to think about what had happened for him to end up here. Nothing came to mind, and it really bugged the boy. The boy finally saw something in the distance, a large tower that seemed to rise above his head for miles. The boy got excited, maybe he was in some sort of medieval video game. That wasn't so hard to believe, considering he had just woken up and someone gave him a sniper rifle, and scopes for eyes.

He decided to see the situation for himself before heading over there, and climbed up a large boulder to try to get a better eye for the situation. He zoomed around looking at the plateau that had the tower, so far...he didn't see...anything...that disappointed the boy. He was hoping for someone who could hopefully tell him more about where the heck he was, or who he was for that matter. He slid down the rock and then walked over to the tower. The tower didn't seem like anything special, it was just a tower, and there wasn't even a door...all it had at the bottom was a large black mass.

"_Someone hasn't kept up with the gardening..._" thought the boy with a smirk

He walked all the way around the tower, and then back to what the boy considered thought was the front. He sighed and sat down in disappointment. It was then that the boy heard a faint buzzing sound. The boy squinted as he looked around and zoomed his view across the landscape. He saw a cloud of white bubbles zipping along the path he had taken, and heading...straight...for him! He didn't know what the bubbles were, but he was sure that it couldn't be good. He slung his rifle back over his shoulder and reloaded it with another clip that seemed to resupply every time he took one. He took aim and squinted at the cloud of white, buzzing bubbles. He squeezed the trigger as fast as he could, shooting off four rounds and then quickly reloading and shooting off another four. The bullets zoomed towards the bubbles, and when the bullets got close to popping them, the bubbles veered around the bullets. All of the boy's bullets missed, and the boy was left with his jaw agape at the speed of what seemed like simple bubbles.

He tried reloading and firing again, but it was too late, the bubbles had caught up with him and were hovering about five feet in front of his masked face. Three bubbles darted out from the group and circled around the boy's head. The boy tried to follow them with his eyes while they darted around, but then he started to get dizzy. The boy shook his head to clear it, then saw that the bubbles took advantage of his time incapacitated to hover closer and start circling around in angry patterns. He raised his rifle to fire, and the bubbles attacked. Each one popped on his skin and outfit, and every one of them felt like a sting where they popped, and then the place where they popped went numb. The boy tried to run, the only place to run to however was the tower. He ran towards what he thought was the entrance and fell through the opening. There was a platform in the middle of the room, but the boy missed it entirely and fell down into nothingness. The boy blacked out, just as he teleported to another sector.

Next Chapter: "A Crossing of Paths"

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Okay...another chapter down...*UPDATE* Chapter Five now posted! I'm getting close to introducing my characters with the characters from the main Lyoko story. So stay tuned for more!


	5. A Crossing of Paths

Chapter 5 here already...it feels like only yesterday I started this! Anyway...in this chapter we get to see the build up to the meeting of the two "dots". We're getting close to the real Lyoko part, one or more chapter(s) and then we introduce my characters to the rest of the Lyoko Warriors.

Chapter 5: "A Crossing of Paths"

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**Setting:** **Lyoko**

**Time: Just around dinner**

**POV: "Boy" (And Briefly "Other Boy")**

The forest floor smelled sweet underneath the boy's nose as he lay face down on the ground. His vision was coming and going but he realized groggily that he was still in the video game forest. The forest...where the bubbles had attacked him. The forest! The boy shot up suddenly, and groaned as he felt the blood leave his head, giving him a temporary migraine. He winced as the blood returned to his head, and then he looked around. The bubbles were still there, but a long ways off, floating with their buzzing sound, away from the boy towards a large tower in the background the boy hadn't seen before.

"Hey! Get back here...I'm not done with you!" shouted the boy, starting to run after them.

The boy went for a dead sprint, and then realized...he was sprinting! His legs and body didn't hurt anymore! He wondered if the bubbles had something to do with this, but he couldn't be sure, but he knew if he caught up with the bubbles, he might just get an answer, or otherwise find out where they were going in such a hurry. It was no use though, no matter how fast the boy ran, the bubbles seemed faster. He wanted a way to slow them down. He wondered if his blades would be of any use, but that seemed ridiculous, unless he was right next to them, the blades would be as good as if he just shook his fist at them, which he almost wanted to do to make himself feel better. He tried getting the grappling hook to come out again, it wasn't good offensively, but he knew if he could hook something, he might be able to catch up to the bubbles.

He flicked his wrist as he ran in every imaginable way possible, he even tried the classic "Spider-Man" approach thinking he could use the grappling hook as some sort of web sling. Nothing worked however, maybe it only worked if he was falling off the platforms, but that seemed like a stupid use for it, but useful in someway...he just hadn't figured out what that way was...quite yet. Instead, the boy tried looking around himself for another kind of weapon. He then noticed something that he hadn't before. A small holster for a pistol was poking out from behind his back the boy unclasped the pistol from the holster and took a look at it. It didn't seem like much...just a pistol. The boy then got an idea, it wasn't a good idea, but it was an idea. The boy pointed the pistol at the retreating bubbles and pulled the trigger. The bullet traveled straight and true, and punctured one of the bubbles, which popped with a small explosion, blowing the other bubbles around it with the shock wave it created.

The boy smiled as he saw the bubble explode, and kept running. He pointed the gun at the swarm and unloaded the pistol as fast as he could. Some of the bullets struck the bubbles, and some didn't, but there was still a large cloud of bubbles left, and the felt like he would never have enough bullets to destroy them all. And the boy still wasn't getting an answer from the bubbles, but it made him feel better to get back at someone who had harmed him...or something, in the case of the bubbles. He went to fire his pistol again, but all he heard was a small "click, click, click" as he pulled the trigger.

"_Great...empty..."_ thought the boy.

He was about to throw it away when the boy realized this was the only long-range weapon he had. He was sure it would come in handy and he was going to find ammo for it somewhere else in this video game. He holstered the pistol and kept running. After running for this long, the boy was having a flashback to the last night, but only in reverse, and was suddenly getting tired of running. The bubbles finally neared the tower and entered through a large black mass at the bottom. The boy ran after them and into the tower. The boy saw a platform in the middle of the tower, and on the outside edge of the tower there were windows and windows of data. The boy wondered why the bubbles had chosen to come in here. But the boy didn't get to think about it long because he missed the platform and had to hang on to the platform for dear life. He tried pulling himself up the platform in the center, but after running for so long, his arms were limp and weak, and he fell down into nothingness.

The bubbles followed him, and he thought he was going to pay for having shot some of them. The boy braced himself for pain, but instead landed in a stream of some of the data that was up in the tower, whisked away in a stream of data, to who knew where. The bubbles entered the stream of data, but went the opposite direction. They zipped away, while the boy felt whisked away to parts unknown, in the opposite direction. The boy turned as best he could in the stream of data, just in time to see another platform rise up in front of him. This time was more of a graceful landing, and the boy was able to land on his feet on the round platform.

"_Did I just go around...in circles?"_ thought the boy.

Nothing looked different... the tower's insides were still covered in the windows of data, and where he was standing was still just a round platform, with a long connecting platform to the...door? Where was the door? The boy walked up to the flat surface at the end of the platform and pushed his hands against it. The wall warped around his hands, and it felt like he was sticking his hands in Jello. The wall sucked him in with a "whooshing" sound, and then the wall spat him out on the other side into a frozen wasteland. The boy shivered as he stepped out, and looked around. This certainly wasn't the forest anymore, unless he went through time...The boy took a few steps away from the tower and looked around. The snow crunched underneath his feet, and there was certainly a nip in the air. The boy shivered, wishing he had a warmer costume. The tunic kept his chest warm, but the thin fabric of his shirt offered almost no protection from the cold.

The boy hoped he would run into the bubbles, but then he realized his pistol was still empty, he knew that if he tried going up against the stinging bubbles, he would probably lose again. The boy was getting tired of this constant butt kicking. He pulled out his pistol and looked around for another clip. He found one clipped on the back of his belt. He felt stupid for not checking there. He immediately unclasped it and slid it into the chamber of the gun, and loaded it. Then the boy stood there...waiting... he knew that something was bound to happen eventually. Either the bubbles were going to come back to finish him off, or something else was going to come out of the tower, and he was ready for it. So he stood there...in the cold...waiting...

On the other side of Lyoko, the other boy woke up in a different stream of data. The boy startled himself fully awake, and tried to move to get out, but he was frozen, all he could do was look around. As he drifted helplessly in stream. The boy noticed the bubbles chasing after him and actually catching up to him as he floated along, unable to do anything. The stream eventually ended, and a platform came into view. The boy quickly stepped on it and ran across the platform and out the door into an icy wasteland, and straight into another boy, pointing a pistol right at his face...

Next Chapter: "An Icy Reception"

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Okay, I figure I should end it there. I had a whole scene in the next chapter where the boys meet each other and join up with the other, but I decided to rework that part since it didn't seem right. Okay, I'm serious, one more long chapter, and I'll be ready to show all and introduce my characters to the rest of the Lyoko gang. *UPDATE* Chapter Six now up!


	6. An Icy Reception

Okay, I just want to take a second to say "Thanks!" to my new followers who are following my story. So thank you very much! So... here it is, Chapter 6...finally, we learn a bit more about our two boys (but not too much...;P) and in an upcoming chapter we might even learn the boys' names...finally...

Chapter Six: "An Icy Reception"

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**Setting: Lyoko**

**Time: Dinnertime**

**POV: Both Boys (POV switches from time to time...try to keep up!)**

** (I'll make it easy...Boy 1, the one with the pistol, is just "Boy". Boy 2, the one with the rifle is "Other Boy") It may get confusing, but I promise I will tell you their names in the next chapter)**

The boy stood outside the tower, pistol pointed at the entrance, waiting for something to come out. He didn't have to wait long for something to come along, because a few minutes later, another boy came running out of the tower, panting hard. Seeing another person surprised him so much, he forgot to fire, and instead watched he in awe as the boy ran past.

"Whoa...whoa...whoa! Where's the fire?" said the boy, lowering his pistol to look at the other boy running by.

The other boy saw the boy, but it was too late, and he ran headlong into the boy, knocking him over. The other boy knew he couldn't stop though, the bubbles were right behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw the boy he had knocked slowly get up. The boy paused to brush himself off, then he look at the other boy as he ran away from him. The boy sniffed under his armpits, thinking it was something he had done to offend the boy to encourage him to run so fast and far in the short time he had exited the tower. The boy cupped his hands and shouted,

"Where's the fire?" the boy shouted again at the retreating back of the other boy. The other boy turned and said only one word.

"Bubbles!" he said pointing back towards the tower.

The boy didn't know what he meant by "bubbles", his "meeting" with them was so far back in his mind, with the sudden appearance of another person, that it made almost no sense. The other boy looked scared just as the bubbles started to exit from the tower. The other boy screamed and ran again. The boy didn't see the bubbles exit the tower, so he had no idea why the other boy was running. The bubbles made a beeline for the other boy, as soon as the first of the bubbles zoomed around the boy, he turned and saw a great wave of the small, white things, he then realized what the hurry was. He ducked his head to try to brace himself for the pain the bubbles brought, since it was too late to react and fight back...but it didn't come.

The bubbles ignored the boy entirely and continued on to the other boy. The boy decided to try to defend the other boy, he knew what it felt like to have been pursued by the bubbles, and knew what would happen if the bubbles caught up to the other boy. He raised the pistol, and stood still to try to get a good shot at the bubbles. He fired off as many bullets as he could at the bubbles. Most of the bullets connected with a bubble, except one. The one bullet zoomed through the cloud of angry bubbles and hit the other boy in the shoulder. The other boy stumbled as the bullet struck him, and he fell to the ground, sliding a bit before coming to a halt. The boy winced and gave an involuntary "ooh..." at the sight of it all.

He hadn't meant to hit the boy, all he wanted to do was help. The bubbles gained quickly on the other boy, and he knew what was coming. He winced again as the bubbles landed on the other boy and he swore he could feel the bubbles popping all over the other boy, especially as the boy started screaming out in pain. The whole scene reminded him too much of him, a couple of hours ago. He ran to help the other boy, but by the time he got there, the bubbles were already done, and were buzzing away. There was an audible "ding!" and the bubbles disappeared, one by one with a faint "pop!" and then they were no more. The boy bent down to look at the other boy. He was wearing all black, and had a hood and cowl to hide most of his face. He also had a large rifle on his back. The boy went to check to see if the other boy was alright, when the other boy woke with a jolt.

"Heyyy...how you 'feelin?" asked the boy.

The other boy looked up at him and all he said was,

"Y-y-you shot me..."

"Well, not on purpose..."

"You shot me...a-a-and you let those bubbles attack me..."

"Yeah, but how do you feel?" the boy said, hoping he would forgive him for letting the bubbles attack, because he knew what happened afterwards.

"Better... I guess, but y-y-you shot me" the other boy was starting to sound like a broken record. He rubbed his shoulder where the boy shot him then looked back up at the boy.

"And there's that word again...shot..." said the boy kind of in an off-handed way

"But you did..." said the other boy almost, "matter-of-factually" as he sat up

"Not...on...purpose..." the boy enunciated.

"But you did shoot me..." said the other boy

"Yes...I guess I did...I shot you...you happy? Why did you even have me do that?" asked the boy, tired of getting the third degree.

"Because now I have a reason..."

"A reason to do what?" the boy thought he saw something in the distance, and instead started looking around instead of focusing on the other boy

"THIS!" the other boy took advantage of the boy's distraction, and sat up and grabbed his rifle off his back and then for the boy.

"WHOA!" shouted the boy, his attention was now fully on the other boy. So, he pulled out his pistol and aimed it back at the other boy to try to defend himself.

"Tell me...where...am...I?" said the other boy through gritted teeth, aiming the rifle right between the boy's eyes.

"I don't know... you tell me where we are..." said the boy holding his pistol out in front of him at the other boy, he had shifted his weight and was now pushing himself up to one knee. He shook his head in confusion, then said, "How should I know, I woke up...and...here I was!"

The other boy said everything with an almost manic tone in his voice. His eye twitched underneath his mask and hood, and then it seemed like the other boy just lost it...

"I've been beat up...by...who knows! Dumped in a strange world where NOTHING makes sense, and then I just so happen to run into you! And what do you do? You shoot me and leave me to my death to die by some bubbles no less!" shouted the other boy, standing up all the way.

"Well, that sounds a lot like my story, but that doesn't explain who you are! Who are you?!" shouted the boy defensively, shifting his arms so that his pistol aimed directly at the chest of the other boy.

The other boy narrowed his eyes at the boy, as if he was thinking about what the boy had just said. He still didn't know if he could trust this stranger who shot him, so he decided to keep talking and see if he could get any answers out of him, he said their stories were almost the same, this seemed to intrigue the other boy, but he decided to start small and work his way big, he still didn't trust this boy, and he could tell the boy didn't trust him now either.

"What's your name?" asked the other boy.

"I asked you first" replied the boy.

The other boy clenched his fists around his rifle in anger. He had enough of running around in circles. He had enough of not getting a full answer, and he was getting very tired of this boy.

"What's...YOUR...name" growled the other boy tensely.

"I...asked...you...first..." the boy said slowly.

"I DON'T KNOW my name" said the other boy throwing his hands and the rifle up in the air.

"That just means you don't want to tell me..." said the boy incredulously

"I'm serious, I don't know my name!" shouted the other boy, pointing the rifle back at the boy.

"Whatever..." said the boy, as he rolled his eyes.

That was too much for the other boy to take, he roared at the boy and went to bash him with his rifle. The other boy danced away and tried to calm the other boy.

"Whoa...whoa...whoa! Was it something I said?" the boy shouted

The other boy aimed his rifle at the boy and was about to fire when the boy froze in place from fear, and disappeared with a gasp. The boy didn't just leave...he vanished, right in front the other boy's eyes.

"Where'd you go?" shouted the other boy, looking around

"What do you mean?" said the other boy's disembodied voice, "Whoa...I'm invisible!" said the boy looking down at his now transparent figure.

"You are invisible, but you aren't sound proof" said the other boy pointing his rifle where the boy's voice came from

The boy gasped, then ran. The invisibility wore off the second he took a step, and broke his concentration. The other boy aimed for the boy as he tried to run away. The other boy squeezed the trigger and the boy threw up his hands to try to brace himself. The other boy was waiting for a thud as the bullet hit, but all he heard was a "thunk". The other boy did a double take, as did the boy. A wall of ice had sprung up and had caught the bullet just before it had hit the boy.

"Did I do that?" asked the boy, his mouth agape with surprise. He focused on the wall in front of him, and using his mind, molded the ice wall into a statue of himself.

"Cool, I don't look so bad..." said the boy with a chuckle. He molded the statue some more, and gave it large biceps and chiseled features that were grossly disproportionate to his actual size

The other boy was not thrilled with this act. He aimed and took another shot. The boy gave a "yipe" and molded the ice into a wall again to block the incoming bullet. Now the boy was having fun. He quickly molded the wall into another sculpture, this time of a vulgar hand sign, and then back to the ice wall. The other boy was furious now. He shot all the bullets he had left into the ice wall. Not a single one penetrated the wall. The other boy knew it was hopeless, and slung the rifle over his shoulder and ran at the wall, yelling out a battle cry. The boy knew there was no way he was getting through the wall like that, but that wasn't what the other boy had in mind. He ran towards the wall and tried vaulting over the wall. The other boy almost made it over the wall, but it was an ice wall after all, so he slipped and fell back to the ground. The boy on the other side laughed and started to run away, seeing as he was sure the ice wall wouldn't hold forever under the other boy's fury, that... and the only way to get off the platform they were on, was to go through the wall he had just made.

The other boy roared at the boy, and slammed his fist as hard as he could into the wall. But when his hand went to make contact with the wall, it sailed right through. The other boy blinked as he saw his hand go right through the solid ice wall...or did it? He pushed up against the wall, this time...it felt like it almost wasn't there, the other boy pushed his way through the wall and out to the other side. The other boy stopped for a moment. Did that really just happen? He pushed against the wall from the other side, and it felt a solid as it did just a couple of seconds ago. He then backed up and pushed his hand against the wall again, this time, he concentrated on trying to go through the wall. His hand passed through it as easy as if he waved it around in the air. The other boy grinned devilishly and then looked around to see where the boy had run off to.

The boy kept an eye on his ice wall once he had reached a reasonable distance from the homicidal maniac down below, and gasped in surprise when the other boy passed through the wall like it almost wasn't there.

"_No way...he has intangibility, and all I have is invisibility?"_ the boy thought jealously.

The boy realized however, that invisibility could have its advantages, especially, with the other boy rounding the corner on the path up to the tall ice floe the boy was hiding on. The boy pulled out his pistol and concentrated on being invisible.

"_Where the heck is he?"_ thought the other boy as he looked around the ice floe. There were all sorts of places to hide on this ice floe. There were tall structures, and even a waterfall, if he wasn't so furious now, the other boy was sure that could appreciate the beauty of it all. He knew he would never find him if he had decided to turn invisible, so he decided to turn the tables and turn intangible until he ran into something he couldn't move through. He knew it was a terrible plan, but it was better than being mocked again. Then heard a rustling in the snow, and he heard the boy's voice.

"I am not your enemy!" said the boy

The other boy changed tactics and instead moved towards the sound of the boy's voice. He raised his rifle and shot in the direction he thought the boy was. He obviously missed when he heard a "thud" as his bullet hit ice, not flesh.

"Y-y-you mocked me!" shouted the other boy, baiting him into talking back and revealing where he was.

"Yes, I did...and I'm sorry." There was more rustling and his voice seemed to shift positions.

"_He's moving...ugh...but where?!"_ thought the other boy.

The other boy looked around desperately for the source of the boy's voice. He heard another rustle and the crunch of snow, and the boy spoke up again.

"I know what it's like to have someone larger than you beat up and make fun of you, I was just so tired of it happening to me that I wanted to try being the someone larger for a change."

The other boy took another blind shot...nothing. More rustling and crunching of snow, and the other boy was ready to take another shot.

"I'm sorry..." pleaded the other boy

"Sorry is not good enough!" shouted the other boy. He shot in every direction in an act of desperation. To try to hit the boy. He heard more crunching of snow, only...was he right behind him? The other boy turned around quickly, and there was the boy! But he wasn't there to kill the other boy, instead...he had his head bowed, and his hand extended. In his hand was the his pistol, outstretched so the other boy could take it if he wanted.

"I'm sorry...you can shoot me if you want..." said the boy pushing the pistol into the other boy's face for him to see.

The other boy felt shocked. He didn't know what to do. He had felt so hot under the collar that this sudden act of surrender caught him off guard. The other boy pulled back his hood and mask so he could finally get a good look around. He saw the ice floe they were on, and most of it was now cracked, due to the other boy's carelessness with his rifle. He then looked back to the boy, his head was still bowed and hand outstretched. The other boy frowned, and pushed the pistol back to the boy.

"I can't...for a while there...I...was the larger someone..."

"What?!" shouted the boy. He looked up at the other boy, then did a double take, "What's going on...what are you trying to pull?"

"What are you talking about, I said I wouldn't shoot you...that's that..." said the other boy, he felt concerned that the boy was losing it now.

"No...what are you doing...to make your face look like that?" shouted the boy, getting to his feet, he put his arms out in front of him, and pointed the pistol at the other boy again.

"_What _are you talking about?" asked the other boy, "This is the way my face has always looked."

"B-b-but, you look like..." stuttered the boy

"Who do I look like? Tell me...since I obviously can't see myself..." said the other boy, starting to get tired with the charade the boy was pulling.

"ME!" shouted the boy. He molded the ice at their feet into a thin, reflective surface for the two of them to look into.

The other boy looked into the mirror, then back at the boy...then back at the mirror...then back at the boy. The boy was right! There was absolutely no difference between their faces.

"H-h-how?" gasped the other boy.

"How should I know, all I know is I was in the factory..."

"The factory!" gasped the other boy.

He remembered now! The factory, the gang that thought he betrayed them, the fight, and then the tube that wouldn't let him out...and then winding up here...in the forest. But that wasn't right...he landed in the mountains! The flood of memories made his head hurt and he collapsed on the platform. The boy also felt the pain in his head as a separate stream of memories entered his head, there was the factory, and the fight, and the tube, but everything seemed dim, like it almost didn't happen the way he remembered, and then a clear memory, of landing in the mountains...but, THAT wasn't right, he had landed in the forest. The boy couldn't take the pain, and collapsed too. After the boys collapsed, a voice called out from the sky.

"Hello...hello? Anyone there?" called out the voice

"No one's answering...Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, get ready for virtualization, you're going to get to the bottom of this..." said the voice.

There was silence for a little while, and then the voice called out one more time, "Virtualization!"

Next Chapter: "A Day in the Life of..."

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Ugh...I did it I made my story finally meet up with the Code Lyoko one! *streamers and balloons drop from ceiling, and party and celebration!* In the next chapter, I hope to FINALLY tell you the boys' names, and finally move to the real story I hoped to tell! Thanks for reading! (Is it just me, or do I seem really excited?!) *UPDATE* Chapter 7 now posted! So...stayed tuned...this is just the beginning! (WHOOO! okay...maybe I am a little too excited...)


	7. A Day in the life

Hey...hey...hey everyone! I want to say thank you to those who have read my story so far, and have stuck around to read my story so far. I also want to thank my new followers, ElectricDoubleLover, and RedWolf11, so to the new followers of my story, and you guys, (all of you who read my story), I give a big "THANK YOU"...so if you haven't already, and you like my story, go ahead and follow it (I won't stop you...) I update my story at least a day, (or every other day considering how well a chapter goes) so if you want to keep up with the updates I make to my story, go ahead and follow it to receive updates for when I do update my story. So enough about me...let's get down to what you really came for...the story!

Chapter Seven: "A Day in the Life of..."

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**Location: Lyoko/Factory**

**Time: Morning classes/just after dinner**

**POV: The Lyoko gang**

Classes seemed to drag on all day long for the Lyoko warriors. Odd and Ulrich were both bored as they sat through another one of Mrs. Hertz's chemistry classes, and instead decided to pass the time by doodling out pictures of themselves fighting outrageous amounts of monsters on Lyoko, as their virtual forms. The only two people who seemed to pay any attention were the two people who sat at the front. Jeremy and Aelita were the only ones in the class paying the most attention to Mrs. Hertz's lecture, and were even taking notes. Jeremy however had started taking less notes than he usually did. His mind seemed focused on something else, plus...he knew if he took detailed notes, that Odd would just try to copy off him later. Aelita noticed Jeremy's distraction, and waited for Mrs. Hertz to turn around and start talking, to take a moment and whisper to Jeremy,

"Something on your mind Jeremy?" she asked in a hushed tone

"Oh...I went to the factory this morning and ran a scan..." said Jeremy, snapping out of his daze

"Nothing serious I hope..." said Aelita

"No, nothing serious, but there were a couple of things that worry me..." he said

"Like what?" asked Aelita, her curiosity peaking.

"Oh...I couldn't figure out why something triggered a return to the past, but there was a program that someone seemed to throw together, tomorrow night, after we left the factory, it was so full of bugs, that I ran the debugger to try to figure out what they were trying to do. Also, I noticed a couple of anomalies in the Forest and Mountain sectors." said Jeremy.

"You think X.A.N.A had something to do with it all? Maybe he's trying to destroy the supercomputer again...it wouldn't be the first time he's tried that."

"No, X.A.N.A wouldn't try that, remember, he still calls the supercomputer "home", and if he tried to destroy it, not only would he destroy himself, he would destroy you in the process..." said Jeremy, now suddenly worried that if that happened, he would never see Aelita again, the thought was terrorizing to Jeremy.

"Well, do you think anyone tampered with the supercomputer so that we can't go to Lyoko?" asked Aelita

"I don't think so, that why I ran the debugger just so we're on the safe side...but..." Jeremy did get to finish because he had been off, as Ulrich spoke up from the back of the classroom.

"No way Odd...! There's no way you'd be able to take on six Krabes, and a Megatank all by yourself." said Ulrich, noticing the drawing that Odd had been doodling.

"What...and you think that you'd be able to take on 5 Bloks, and about 4 Kankrelats?" shouted Odd, "You might be good...good buddy, but you're not that good..." said Odd, looking at Ulrich's doodle

"What...and you're saying that you could take on the Bloks and the Kankrelats?" said Ulrich, in a state of disbelief.

"Yep...and the Krabes...and the Megatank" said Odd, felling full of himself

"No way Odd..." said Ulrich

"Stern! Della Robbia!" shouted Mrs. Hertz, suddenly, having had enough of the boys interrupting her class, "Report to Principal Delmas immediately!"

Both boys lowered their heads, and walked out of the classroom. Aelita giggled, but when she noticed that Jeremy was already back to concentrating on something else, she stopped and stared at Jeremy, a little concerned that he was taking this whole X.A.N.A thing a little too seriously. Things weren't going any better for Yumi in math class.

Yumi was always good at her other classes, but classes that required a lot of thinking were the bane of her existence. She wasn't the only one though, the new boy sat in the back corner, brow furrowed, and a look of worry on his face. Yumi was curious, she hadn't seen this boy before. She turned around and talked to the girl behind her.

"Who's that?" asked Yumi in a hushed tone.

"That's William Dunbar...he's new here...got kicked out of his last school..." whispered the girl

"What did he do to get kicked out?" asked Yumi, raising an eyebrow in suspicion

"I don't know" said the girl, "He won't tell anyone, he's a bit of a mystery...and kind of handsome too." said the girl with a smile. She blushed a little, then returned to her notes.

Yumi had to admit he had a bit of a rough, and maybe a bit rebellious look to him that made him look cute much like...she didn't want to think about it...and she returned her mind to the math lesson. The bell rang for end of class, and everyone ran to lunch. Lunch wasn't much...everyone from the group sat around, minding their own business while they ate. Aelita was finally fed up with the silence at their table. Ulrich and Odd weren't talking to each other after what happened in class, Yumi was avoiding the gaze of Ulrich, and Jeremy...was being Jeremy, and thinking too much about something...probably X.A.N.A related. Aelita tried striking up a conversation instead.

"So...how was class?" she said nonchalantly to Yumi

Yumi answered with one word, "Fine..." she said quickly, and then she looked quickly over at Ulrich, then back to her food.

Aelita sighed...ever since she had come to Earth, her friends were acting stranger and stranger. She knew there was probably no way that she was going to get all of her friends to talk to each other during lunch, and she hoped that it would all blow over by the time they met together that night at the factory. They met together again at dinner, (all except Yumi, who had to go home to eat), and by then, everyone was in better spirits. Jeremy sat down next to Aelita, and across from Ulrich and Odd. As soon as he sat down, all attention turned to him. Jeremy stared back, he didn't know what to say...

"Umm...can I help you?" he said

"So naïve...our poor Einstein..." said Odd

"Did I miss something?" asked Jeremy to Aelita. Aelita shrugged and looked over at Ulrich and Odd, hoping they would be able to answer the question they posed. Ulrich turned to Odd and smiled, then turned back to Jeremy and Aelita and said,

"You may have been quiet during class, but we could still hear you..." started Ulrich.

Odd interjected, "Which meant Sissi could hear you..."

Ulrich shot Odd a look, then gained control of the conversation again and said, "So we had to cause a distraction to stop you two from saying more about X.A.N.A.", Aelita and Jeremy didn't know what to say...

"So you guys got in trouble so that we wouldn't?", said Aelita, a bit taken aback.

"Yeah...some friends we are huh?" said Ulrich, "But that still doesn't help we have detention with Jim tomorrow after class, we'll probably sit around as he talks about things that he'd "rather not talk about"." said Ulrich, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway Einstein...what's the plan for tonight? Are we going to fight X.A.N.A's cronies? Deactivate a tower? Or have any fun?" said Odd desperately.

"I ran a scan this morning and noticed two anomalies, one in the Forest Sector, and another in the Mountains, I want you guys to go and check it out, so we know what X.A.N.A might be planning." said Jeremy.

"Well...it's better than nothing..." sighed Odd.

Jeremy noticed how disappointed Odd was, and decided to cheer him up,

"There might be monsters..." he said, tempting Odd.

"All right! Let's go!" shouted Odd, shoveling the rest of food into his mouth, and leaving the table before anyone else did. The rest of the group laughed and stood up to empty their trays. They all ran to the passage in the park. It wasn't long until they met up with Yumi on the bridge. The group filled Yumi in on the details as they ran into the factory, and slid down the ropes they had hung up, down a level to the freight elevator that led to the lab. The elevator ground to a halt, and Jeremy opened the control panel to the elevator and punched in the code to enter the lab. The door hissed open, and the group left the elevator, and surrounded the computer screen, as Jeremy booted up the supercomputer. Jeremy ran a few more diagnostics on the bugged programs and said,

"Well, the virtualization program is free of bugs, so if we need to, I won't have any problem sending you to Lyoko, or getting you back safely." said Jeremy confidently.

"Good, at least now we'll know we'll be able to go to Lyoko, and end up landing in the digital void, or I know I won't come back with Yumi's head on my body!" shouted Odd, in a bit of melodrama to lighten the mood.

"Yeah, because it would be terrible to have Yumi's head...and still be the shortest one of us all..." said Ulrich, trying to bring Odd down a notch.

Even Yumi had to laugh at Ulrich's joke...it was pretty funny compared to the one Odd had made. Jeremy paid it no mind, and had returned to typing things into the supercomputer. Yumi noticed Aelita staring at him, she had a look of love and longing on her face, Yumi wondered if that's the way she looked when she looked at...she blushed just thinking about it. She shot a quick glance over to Ulrich, he was still making fun of Odd and his joke, so he didn't notice when Yumi looked his way. However, Odd noticed, and he gave Ulrich a playful shove, and pointed to Yumi. Ulrich looked over towards Yumi, and Yumi quickly looked away. She could feel her cheeks burning, she was so embarrassed, but she also felt the urge to go over and smack Odd as hard as she could. There was a shout and everyone turned back around to Jeremy, afraid something had happened. Jeremy shouted again, and there was a general cry of questions, and then Jeremy said, "The anomalies...they're gone!"

"What do you mean...gone?" said Yumi, finally composing herself enough to ask.

"I mean...they're not there!" Jeremy shouted

"Calm down Einstein...something like that couldn't just get up and walk away could it?" asked Odd

"That's what I don't know...I didn't have time to name _what _they were before I had to go to class, it could have been a guardian...some new monsters that X.A.N.A created...or something entirely different!" shouted Jeremy, about to rip his hair out over this.

Aelita put a hand on Jeremy's shoulder to calm him, "Just search Lyoko, I'm sure you'll find it again..." she said in a calming voice.

"Right...search Lyoko..." said Jeremy, trying to regain his train of thought.

It wasn't long before Jeremy found what he was looking for. The search turned up two dots in the Ice Sector.

"What is this?" asked Jeremy, studying the two dots, "These aren't the anomalies I tagged earlier...they look about the same...but..."

"What?!" shouted Odd

"No way..." said Jeremy in disbelief. Then he started doing something that made everyone scratch their heads, "Hello...hello? Is anyone there?" he said into his earpiece

Everyone was confused...who was he talking to? Jeremy turned his chair and said, "No one's answering...Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, get ready for virtualization to the Ice Sector, you're going to get to the bottom of this..."

No one questioned Jeremy now, they knew that if Jeremy was sending them to Lyoko, it was important. They all turned on heel, and Ulrich pushed the button to open the elevator. The doors hissed open, and the group took the elevator down one more level. The door hissed open, to a room with three large tube like devices in the center of the room. The three of them each walked up to a tube, and stepped in. Up in the lab, Jeremy started the sequence to virtualizing his friends. It didn't take long for the program to run, and then the warriors found themselves on Lyoko.

Jeremy's voice came from the sky, "The anomalies have moved to the ice floe in front of you.

"That's great Einstein..." said Odd, "but how do you expect us to get there?"

"What? It's really easy Odd, take the path in front of you!" said Jeremy

"Well, that's a good idea Jeremy, but I kind of have to agree with Odd on this one..." said Ulrich

"What?" questioned Jeremy

"There's a wall of ice in the way of the path Jeremy..." said Yumi.

"What...that's not on my map..." said Jeremy, looking closely at the digital map of Lyoko in front of him.

"Never mind...we'll find our own way over" said Yumi to Jeremy's disembodied voice.

Ulrich and Odd nodded, and ran at the wall, and Yumi followed. Odd was the first one up the wall, his claws were perfect for gripping the slippery surface of the ice. Ulrich was next, he threw his saber halfway up the wall, and then vaulted into the air He grabbed his sword, and then swung around the grip in a gymnastic way. He vaulted to the top of the wall, making sure to pull his saber out of the wall before he jumped, he sure didn't want to leave it behind. Yumi was the only one having trouble climbing the wall, the wall was too tall to jump over, and her fans didn't do much to help her to climb the wall, since they were too thin for her to stand on. Yumi was about to tell Odd and Ulrich to go on when she saw a hand enter her field of view. Odd came dangling down the wall, held at the ankles by Ulrich.

"Hurry up!" strained Ulrich, "Odd is skinny, but he's starting to get heavy!"

"Hey!" shouted Odd as Yumi grabbed his hand, and Ulrich strained and threw the both of them over the wall. Odd landed on all fours, and Yumi crouched as she hit the ice. "I'm not skinny...I'm svelte!"

Ulrich rolled his eyes. Jeremy's voice called out from the sky, and said,

"You're almost there...just head up that path in front of you..."

"Got it!" said Ulrich, and the three of them followed Jeremy's orders

The top of the ice floe looked like a war zone, the ice had cracked in many places, and there were all sorts of footprints scattered in the snow, there was also a tall mirror sticking up out of the snow. The group could barely see what was on the other side of the mirror, it looked like someone had collapsed, but they mostly saw their reflections from their side of the thin, reflective sheet of ice. Odd took the first few steps on the floe towards the mirror, but Ulrich held him back. Odd looked back to see what had gotten into him. Ulrich had a serious look on his face, and held a finger up to his mouth to quiet Odd. Ulrich never looked this way...unless he wanted Odd to be...quiet...then Odd got it. Ulrich didn't know if they were walking into a trap or not, so he wanted Odd's fat trap shut, so he didn't give them all away. Yumi already knew what Ulrich had in mind, and pulled out her fans to defend herself. Ulrich did the same with his saber, and Odd cocked his arrow launcher to load an arrow into it...just in case. Ulrich gave a hand signal that could only mean "go check out the mirror" and Odd and Yumi nodded in agreement. Odd went first, pointing his paw in front of him, ready to shoot whatever might have been on the other side. Odd didn't see anything when he got to the other side, only Yumi, who had just came around the other side of the mirror, fans extended, and arms tensed, ready to throw one of them if need be. Odd shrugged at Yumi, then took a step towards the mirror to see if it was anything special, and tripped over something. Yumi gasped as she looked down at what Odd had tripped over.

"What? Is there something in my teeth?" said Odd, using his tongue to wipe his teeth. Odd thought he had just tripped over a rock...he didn't realize he had tripped over something alive...something alive...and now awake. The boy sat up and rubbed his head.

"Who are you?" asked Yumi

The boy blinked... "Y-y-you are real!" shouted the boy.

"Yes..." said Yumi a bit taken aback. She helped Odd up and then realized that the boy in front of them wasn't the only one there.

"There's two of you!" she shouted, "B-b-but how?"

"Oh don't worry...he's just me...oh...by the way...my name is Hayden!" said the boy cheerfully...holding out his hand.

Next Chapter: "It's Twins...!"

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PHEW! I thought I would never get to this point. So whatcha think? You finally know the boy's name! (But what is the other boy's name you might ask...) Umm...still haven't figured that out yet... I wanted this chapter to just have the part near the end where the warriors met Hayden and his new twin, just so I could fit more and finally get around to both names, but I wanted to do a bit of recap, and see what happened during a normal Kadic student's day, okay...so I didn't really know what to do in this chapter...but I think I made it work! If you have any ideas on what I should name the other boy...message me...I want to give you guys a bit of control here...I have a couple of ideas, and if I don't get any answers, I'll name him what I want... so this is your chance to make this your story (kinda...), and also in the future, I will try and have other contests so you guys can make this YOUR story...(sorta) *UPDATE* Chapter Eight now posted...contest for names closed...stop sending me names, it's too late!


	8. It's Twins!

Hello Internet! Welcome back to another chapter of my exciting story...Thank you to Redwolf11 for being about the only person to suggest a name for the other boy for this chapter. He will get the honor (If you can call it that) of having the character he named, featured in all future chapters of this story. The next time I have one of these little "contests", don't be afraid to take part! The only thing that could happen is that I might pick your suggestion! Don't let others decide this story for you, if you want to see something happen in this story, don't be afraid to make any suggestions you would like to see, I'm very open to other people's opinions...so anyway...thanks again to those who submitted names, and a big thank you again to Redwolf11. Anyway, on with the story!

Chapter Eight: "It's Twins!"

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**Location: The Factory Computer Lab**

**Time: Late at night**

**POV: Lyoko Gang (plus 2)**

"There's two of you!" shouted Yumi, "B-b-but how?"

"Oh don't worry...he's just me...oh...by the way...my name is Hayden!" said the boy cheerfully...holding out his hand.

"Wait...what do you mean...he's you?" asked Odd, getting to his feet.

"I mean...well I don't really know...all I know is that I was in the factory, and then I was here, and then I ran into...me...!" said the boy Hayden, looking back at the still unconscious other boy.

"That still doesn't make sense..." said Yumi, a little confused by this strange turn of events, but, she reached down and shook the boy's hand anyway.

"I'm...Yumi" said Yumi, a little nervous to already be making friends with someone she just met.

Odd stuck out his hand next and shook Hayden's hand, "Odd" he said simply

"Odd? Okay...and Yumi..." he said with a nod

"Yumi...Odd...what's going on back there...who are you talking to?" Ulrich had stayed behind to guard the way from any potential monsters, and was wondering where the extra voice was coming from

"Ulrich, you might want to come take a look at this..." said Yumi, in a bit of a concerned voice

"What? Did Odd step on his tail again?" said Ulrich, sheathing his saber and walking around to where Yumi and Odd were.

"Hey! I do not step on my tail!" said Odd indignantly

"Shut up you two, and just get over here Ulrich!" said Yumi, the concern in her voice rising.

Ulrich pulled out his saber again, with that much concern in her voice, the only thing on the other side of that mirror, was probably going to end up dead in a couple of seconds, and that would probably be about the only good thing about it. Ulrich stepped around the mirror and saw...a boy! Ulrich was so surprised, he almost dropped his saber. Then he heard a groan and another boy sat up, and he looked just like the other boy, just in a different outfit.

"T-t-t-there's two?!" Ulrich whispered to Yumi. She seemed like she could hardly believe it either.

"Hi there!" said the boy, stretching out his hand to Ulrich, "You are Ulrich... I've heard so much about you already..." joked the boy. Ulrich grabbed the boy's hand cautiously, he didn't know this boy, or what he was doing on Lyoko, but he decided to at least be polite, since Odd and Yumi hadn't devirtualized him yet, so he figured they both were friendly.

"Hayden..." said Hayden with a curt nod, and a handshake. Hayden let go of Ulrich's hand, and looked back to the other boy, "I don't know who he is...but he looks like me, so I figure he's...me!" said the boy Hayden almost mystically.

The other boy stirred finally, and got up and turned and looked around, he looked at Hayden, and he gave a bleary smile and wave to him, like he was just getting up from a long night. He then turned and saw Odd, Yumi, and Ulrich. Yumi still had her fans out, and Ulrich had his saber. The other boy took it as a threat to Hayden, and launched himself up and grabbed the pistol out of the holster on Hayden's back. He pointed it at Ulrich, and started firing. Ulrich had little time to react, using his saber, he blocked the incoming bullet, and then parried the next, and the next.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" shouted Yumi and Odd, trying to stop the other boy from firing.

The other boy wouldn't have it, he had just learned the boy was the other him, and he wasn't about to let some weirdos in costumes take him away. Yumi and Odd stood in the way of the other boy from firing the pistol at Ulrich. Hayden had stood up, and was trying to stop him too by talking to him. The other boy wouldn't have it and fired at Yumi instead. Yumi was devirtualized almost immediately under the barrage of bullets. Some of the bullets continued on and hit Ulrich as well, who wasn't ready to block, or dodge. He was devirtualized as well. Hayden gasped as he saw Yumi and Ulrich disappear in a shower of squares, and then they slowly turned into a wire frame, and vanished from the world. Hayden gasped as he tried to come to terms with it all. Odd decided to take matters into his own...paws, and fired back at the other boy. The other boy didn't see it coming, he was too busy gloating over having protected his other self. The other boy flew backwards, and dropped the pistol at Hayden's feet as he too was devirtualized.

"Y-you killed him!" shouted Hayden, "The other me killed them!" he said with a groan as he looked at the spots where Yumi and Ulrich stood

"No, I sent him to the factory, he will be safe there..." said Odd, "And Yumi and Ulrich will be fine...this isn't the first time they've been devirtualized..."

"Devirtualized?" asked Hayden, everything was starting to not make sense again, so he asked "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Jeremy!" Odd shouted into the sky

"Jeremy...who's Jeremy?" asked Hayden, looking up into the sky

"Yes Odd..." said a calm voice from the sky

"Did Yumi, and Ulrich, and the "anomaly" come back to the factory?" Odd asked

"Anomaly? All I saw here was Ulrich, Yumi...and...me...well, the other me..." said Hayden in an undertone.

"Who's there with you Odd?" asked Jeremy's voice

"He says his name is...Hayden...was it?" asked Odd

Hayden nodded at Odd and looked back into the sky to find where the voice was coming from.

"You mean...another...real..._person_?" asked Jeremy

"Yep...he pretty real Einstein!" said Odd.

"Well I...well you...well we..." started Jeremy, "I'm bringing you both back in...I need to know what's going on!" said Jeremy

"Wait a second guys...three Kankrelats coming in from the Southwest!" shouted Jeremy's voice from the sky.

"Kankrelats?" asked Hayden. He turned to Odd and said, "What are Kankrelats?"

"Monsters...on this virtual world...they protect it from us, and keep X.A.N.A safe while he tries to do his dirty work." said Odd simply, cocking his arrow launcher.

"Monsters? X.A.N.A? Virtual world? Have you lost it?" asked Hayden

"We don't have time for an explanation!" shouted Jeremy's voice

Odd pointed to the pistol at Hayden's feet, "Do you know how to use that?"

Hayden picked it up and nodded, "Good, because you're going to need to in a second"

Odd tensed up as he saw three small figures come waddling up the path to the ice floe where they were. Hayden looked and saw the three small things wander up on, short, stubby mechanical legs, they popped up over the edge and then look around until it saw the both Odd and Hayden. The things whirred for a second, and then a laser bolt came whipping out of the red-eye thing in the center of the monsters, (which Hayden could only figure were the Kankrelats) and whizzing past his arm, leg, and ear. Hayden jumped...he had never seen creatures like this before, and he didn't know what to do. Odd leapt into action, and dodged one of the laser bolts by doing a sideways flip over it, and then firing one of his laser arrows while in mid-flip. The laser flew through the air, and hit the other eye like pattern on the shell of the Kankrelat. The Kankrelat skittered around for a second after being shot, and then...exploded! The small mechanical legs ran around for half a second, like a chicken without a head, and then vanished with a burst of static.

"Aim for the eye on the shell!" said Odd, lining up another shot.

Hayden looked at the pistol, then looked at the Kankrelat. He pulled the trigger, and the Kankrelat exploded! Hayden cheered as he watched the discombobulated legs skitter around for half a second, before disappearing in a burst of static. Odd gave him a thumbs up, and then turned to fire at the last one, but before he could, the Kankrelat took advantage of Odd's distraction, and fired a laser bolt directly at Odd's chest. Odd disappeared in a shower of squares, he shouted something about "not being fair" then he vanished. Hayden then realized he was all alone on this ice floe, with some monster he didn't know. He pointed his pistol at the last Kankrelat, and pulled the trigger of his pistol. All he heard was a "click" and he realized he was out of ammo. In all the commotion since he was up, the other boy had used up almost all his ammo, on firing at friendlies. The boy sighed as he heard the Kankrelat wind up a shot, and fire it right at his chest. Hayden could feel himself fly backwards, as he too, was devirtualized.

Hayden woke up, looking at the inside of one of the tube. Hayden panicked...he was back inside one of the tubes! There was a small cool down noise, and then the tube popped open. Hayden gratefully stumbled out. Hayden smiled as he looked around and saw Yumi. But Yumi wasn't looking at Hayden, and she didn't look too happy either. She was looking over in the corner at the scuffle that was going on. Ulrich hunched over someone, trying to get a hold of whatever he could get his hands on, Odd was over him, trying to pry him off of...the other him! Hayden joined in the fray to protect the other him from Ulrich, and pry Ulrich off at the same time. Yumi stood over them all, shouting at all of them. The elevator opened and Aelita and Jeremy walked out of it, and analyzed the commotion. Suddenly, there was a loud shout, and everyone froze what they were doing...and looked at...Aelita.

"Okay!" shouted Aelita, "We are going to go up to the lab, we are going to talk about this like civil people, and we are going to get to the bottom of this!" shouted Aelita.

Everyone seemed surprised. No one had ever heard Aelita shout like that before...especially Jeremy. No one seemed to want to disobey her either, so they all quietly stood up, and walked over to the elevator silently. Everyone passed by Aelita as she herded them into the elevator, Ulrich went to open his mouth, but Aelita gave him a stern look and Ulrich fell silent, and he got in the elevator. When everyone was finally in the elevator, Aelita marched in and punched the button to go up. She turned her back to everyone with a "humph" and everyone stayed silent as they rode the one level up to the computer lab. The doors hissed open, and Aelita marched out of the elevator and pointed to the lab, everyone got what that meant, and they all trooped out of the elevator, and the door hissed behind them. Jeremy went to sit down in his chair, but Aelita marched ahead of him and sat down in it before he could. If Jeremy seemed surprised, he didn't show it, he didn't want Aelita to get mad at him, especially since she seemed ready to bite anyone's head off if they talked back.

Aelita sat in the chair, and the rest of the Lyoko warriors filed around her. Ulrich leaned on a wall, Jeremy stood against his chair, and Yumi sat at the top of the holographic hub, knees up against her chest, and her arms resting on her knees. Odd just flopped on the floor. Hayden and the other boy stood in front of everyone, heads bowed like they had just gotten in trouble for kicking a ball through the neighbor's window. Once everyone settled they all looked at Aelita. Aelita had closed her eyes and counting under her breath. Once she reached 10, she opened her eyes.

"Okay..." she said with a sigh, "We are going to get to the bottom of this, even if it takes all night." she said in her most pleasant voice she could muster under the circumstances.

"Let's start with you two..." she said, "I want all the details, and I want them now! Who are you? What are you doing in our factory? When did you get here? Why are there two of you? And how do you know about our secret?" rattled off Aelita

Both boys launched into an explanation at the same time, the overlapping voices made Aelita shout again. Both boys stopped and bowed their heads again.

"One...at...a...time" Aelita growled.

Hayden looked at the other boy, "Mind if I start?" he asked

The other boy nodded, and Hayden started.

"I was here last night..."

Aelita interjected, "Now when you mean last night, you must mean tomorrow night, right?"

"Tomorrow night...? What?"

Ulrich took a chance and spoke up, "You didn't think that this hunk of electronic junk wasn't just for crunching large number did you?"

Odd spoke up next when he realized Ulrich didn't die when he interrupted Aelita, "Yeah, this thing does all sort of neat tricks, like even returning the world a day to the past...comes in handy when the world has come close to dying a couple of times a week."

Hayden and the other boy looked dumbfounded... "So you're saying that this thing..." said the other boy, pointing to the screen and hub of the computer, "Can turn the world back a day?"

"That's right..." said Yumi

"And that last...I mean...tomorrow night...this...return... happened?" said Hayden, picking up on the other boy's logic.

"And that we..." said the other boy pointing to himself, then Hayden, "Were in there..." he pointed to the computer again, "When that happened?"

"That's what I figure happened" Jeremy finally had the courage to speak up, after everyone spoke in turn, "Aelita...may I?"

Aelita nodded and she hopped down out of the chair, and let Jeremy sit down in it. Jeremy focused on the computer for a second, and then turned to the rest of the group and said, "Carry on...I'll only be just a minute..."

"Okay" said Hayden

Hayden launched into the story of how he got chased all night by the gang that he _used _to run with. He told them what happened when he went into the factory and tried to lose the boys. He tried to recall, to the best of his memory, what happened when the boys caught up to him, and beat him up. He then recounted of his time in the scanner, and his brief time on Lyoko.

"So you're saying..." said Yumi, "That you came across this place...by accident?"

"Yeah...it's crazy...isn't it?" said Hayden, smiling at how weird it sounded

Yumi turned to the group and they all huddled together, except Jeremy, who was still working on the computer.

"How do we know we can trust this kid?" asked Yumi

"Has he given us a reason to not trust him?" asked Aelita

"You mean beside shooting me, and Yumi, and getting us devirtualized...no...not much else." said Ulrich offhandedly.

"Okay, so the other one's not perfect, but Hayden seems nice enough...he didn't fire at us when he met us..." said Odd, trying to brighten the mood

"Since when are you such a good judge of character Odd?" asked Yumi

"Well...all I'm saying is...if we can trust the one...we can trust the other...they're exactly the same aren't they?" said Odd.

"I don't know..." said Ulrich, "I mean, when the other one took one look at me, he grabbed Hayden's pistol and started firing at me!"

"We know Ulrich...we were there too..." said Yumi, "Maybe we just frightened him...after all, the only other person he had seen up to that point was Hayden..."

"Oh...look who's the judge of character now..." remarked Odd.

"I'm just saying...maybe we need to get both sides of the story before we draw any conclusions." said Yumi.

The group turned back around to face Hayden and the other boy. Jeremy was still typing away on his computer, trying to figure things out from a logical point of view. Yumi turned to Ulrich, hoping he would keep his opinions to himself, he shrugged, which she only took to mean "whatever...I'll stay quiet",and she turned back to Hayden and the other boy.

"Okay..." said Yumi with a sigh, "What's your story?" she said, pointing to the other boy.

"My story?" said the other boy, looking around, "My story is his story, but just a few chapters short."

"What do you mean?" asked Aelita

"I mean...he's me...and I'm him..." he said, pointing back and forth between him and Hayden, "Only...I don't exactly know who I am, where I'm from, or even my name..." said the other boy sheepishly.

"You don't know your name?" asked Yumi

"No, up until tomorrow night...I didn't even exist!" said the other boy.

"That is correct." said Jeremy suddenly.

"WHAT?!" said everyone at once, including Hayden and the other boy.

"According to the logs, one person went into the scanner, and two people came out."

"But how is that possible Jeremy?" asked Aelita.

"According to the program that someone put in after you got beat up, the code allowed the cloning of one person, and for two separate people to end up in Lyoko."

"So I'm a..." said the other boy, looking at himself

"So he's a..." said Hayden, looking at the other boy.

"For all intents and purposes...he is 100%...a copy of you" Jeremy said, pointing to the other boy, then to Hayden.

"But...what's my name?" asked the other boy, "Just because I'm him...does that mean that we're both Hayden?" asked the other boy.

"That would get confusing fast..." said Yumi.

Everyone agreed, and they tried throwing out names for the boy to try.

"Robert? Rob for short?" said Odd

"Nah..."

"John?" said Ulrich

"Nah..."

"William?" asked Aelita

"No!" said Yumi...and everyone stared at her, "There's...a new kid...his name is William...wouldn't...work..." she said chuckling between words, like she was convincing herself it was funny.

"Can I say something?" asked Hayden

"Go ahead..." said Jeremy

"When I was born, my mom said I was going to be born as a twin... but she said that the other twin died in uterus, and she only had me, she said that if he had been born though...his name would have been Seth."

"I like it..." said Odd

"Me too..." said Aelita

"Well, it's really up to him isn't it?" asked Yumi, pointing to the other boy

"I like it..." said Seth.

"Well...do you have a last name Hayden?" asked Ulrich, "I mean...you can't have just the one name..."

"Yeah...Michaels..." said Hayden

"So I guess I am Seth Michaels then!" said Seth

"But what do we do with you guys...you know too much of our secret for us to let you go free..." said Jeremy

"Would another return to the past work?" asked Ulrich

"No...he's scanned in...and even if I could drop every mention of Hayden and Seth from our database, it probably still wouldn't get rid of Seth..." said Jeremy

"Delete...me...?" Seth said...a little worried now.

"We couldn't do that!" shouted Yumi, and everyone agreed.

"Then what can we do?" asked Jeremy

"They could come live with us!" said Odd.

"Where do you guys live?" asked Hayden

"At the local Junior High Boarding school across the river" said Aelita, "Kadic Academy..."

"Can't we come and live with you there?" asked Seth.

"We'd have to work on it..." said Jeremy, already deep in thought about what he would have to do to get Hayden and Seth over to their school.

"What grade are you in?" asked Odd

"Where are you're parents?" asked Yumi

"Do you have all your papers?" asked Jeremy

"Whoa...whoa...whoa guys...one at a time!" said Ulrich, "You're upsetting the poor guys!"

"Does this mean..." started Hayden

"That you trust us...?" finished Seth.

"Well...yeah! It's probably not the ideal way to start a friendship...but...you can call us friends!" said Ulrich, "But we need to make sure we know who you guys are first..."

Hayden and Seth smiled, Hayden launched into some of his history, and Seth filled in the blanks in his memory from time to time, and vice versa when Seth talked, since Seth had the same memories as Hayden did. Hayden said he had grown up on the streets, his mother had died when he was very young, and he lived with his drunken father. His father cared so little for him, that he ended up falling into the wrong group of friends, and running with them until they became a bit of a gang. The gang dealt mostly in petty theft, pickpocketing, and some breaking and entering, and that he specialized in computer hacking. The group was starting to worry about trusting this boy now, Ulrich felt up his back pocket to make sure his wallet was still there. Jeremy stared at his bag near his feet, and the computer he had hidden inside. Hayden relieved everyone when he went on to say that he wanted desperately out of the business, and to use his skills for something productive.

Seth picked up the story and said that Hayden had gone around to those they had robbed and hacked, anonymously, and offered his services to fix their computers, and any damages that he, or his gang might have caused. At first, he offered his services free of charge, but when an elderly woman he helped refused to let him go without paying him for his help, people didn't stop. At this point, Hayden refused to go on any more thefts, and decided instead to follow the gang, and memorized the houses they burglarized, and went and helped the people the next day. The people he helped were so impressed with the work he did, fixing their homes for them, and recovering any data they had lost, that they almost never let him go without paying him in any way.

Hayden picked up the story again, and told them about how the gang caught wind of him doing with the job he was doing, helping people recover after his "so-called" friends robbed them, and decided that he would be useful if they continued to rob people, and then he went in a cleaned up the place, and got paid for it too. It would be a vicious cycle, of robbing, clean up, and then robbing again if they felt like it, and it would end up making them all rich. But Hayden wouldn't stand for it. He told them he was leaving, and that he might start his own business, helping people recover from being robbed, especially from people like them. He even threatened to turn them all into the police. That was the last straw, and the boys decided it was time to do away with the "goody two shoes."

"And that's how I ended up in your factory..." said Hayden finally, "And Seth too I guess" he said as he put a hand on Seth's shoulder and smiled. Seth smiled back.

Everyone seemed a to feel a little better about letting Hayden and Seth into the group, so long as they both promised not to go back to the gang, and that if they heard anything about a robbery in town anytime soon, they were to go to the police and report the gang, even if they didn't feel that the gang was to blame for it. Hayden and Seth gladly promised. Hayden was more glad than Seth he felt, Seth may have had Hayden's memories, but he never had to deal one on one with his old gang personally, and he was glad he never had to go back, and he was glad Seth was never going to have to deal with them, it was like giving himself the life he never had.

"Well, that's our story, but what's your guys' story?" asked Hayden to the Lyoko warriors.

Jeremy was already on the ball about it, and opened up his video diary and showed it to the two boys, it explained Lyoko, how the group met, and how they met Aelita (at first, she was Maya, but she quickly regained her memory, according to the video Jeremy.) The videos explained X.A.N.A, and how he wanted to take over the real world. It explained the monsters on Lyoko, and their daily struggle to fight X.A.N.A, and their time traveling adventures to keep bad things from happening ever again. Video Jeremy explained his struggle to get Aelita to Earth, and how much trouble he had in writing the program he need to free Aelita from the clutches of Lyoko. The most recent journal entry described their attempts to shut down the supercomputer, and what happened when they tried to do so.

"So...Aelita's linked to the supercomputer, by a virus that X.A.N.A gave her?" asked Seth.

"Yeah, that's what we've been working on trying to fix, so we can shut down X.A.N.A for good." said Jeremy

Yumi looked at the time, "Oh my gosh! It is so late!" she said, "My parents are probably worried sick!"

Everyone agreed that it was late, Jeremy hopped down from his chair and walked over to a hidden panel on the wall. He removed the panel, and from inside the small area in the wall, he pulled out two sleeping bags. He threw one at Hayden, and the other at Seth.

"You guys are going to have to sleep here for tonight...it will take a couple of days to get everything in order for you to join us at the school..." said Jeremy, "We keep a couple sleeping bags here for occasions just like this, or when Aelita and I work late on the supercomputer, and don't have time to go back to the school." Jeremy said, placing the panel back into the wall. The panel seemed to disappear seamlessly into the rest of the wall when Jeremy put it back, making it the best hiding spot.

Hayden and Seth nodded in agreement and the group waved "good night" to them as they left. Hayden and Seth waved back, surprised how fast they were becoming friends with the others. They rolled out their sleeping bags, and went to sleep.

Next Chapter: "Confessions of a Forgotten Rich Kid"

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Okay...so, we finally get to see the group meet Hayden and Seth, and we know the "other boy's" name now! Thanks again to Redwolf11 for the suggestion for Seth's name, my story will follow the Lyoko warriors through the show, starting with the second season, and continuing on through the seasons. I hope to add my characters into the story wherever I feel it is proper, and maybe add a couple "never seen" episodes (with you, my readers, deciding what should happen in those episodes.) Keep on reading, and I hope to have another chapter finished before tomorrow, so stay tuned!


	9. Confessions of a Forgotten Rich Kid

Howdy, gorgeous people of the Internet! Assassinhayd here, back with another chapter of my story, which I've now aptly renamed "Secret Life". I feel it fits my story better, not only because the Lyoko warriors lead a secret life, but because even though Hayden (and by some extent Seth) might have told us about our past; they might not have told all! I'm waiting for a later chapter (a lot later...) to show what that might be, so stay tuned! Anyway...in this chapter, we rejoin our heroes the next day...here we go!

Chapter 9: "Confessions of a Forgotten Rich Kid"

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**Setting: Factory**

**Time: Early Sunday Morning**

**POV: Hayden**

Hayden got up early the next morning. He hadn't been able to sleep much anyway. He slipped out of sleeping bag, and walked over to the ladder and exited the factory through the boiler room. Hayden soon found himself outside, staring at the sky as the sun began to rise. He couldn't believe the turn of event that seemed to happen in such a short amount of time. Hayden leaned up against one of the supports of the bridge, and stared down into the water below. For a while, he was at peace. Then, he noticed something coming down the storm drain on the other side of the bridge. It was Jeremy, Aelita, and the rest of the gang, come to visit Seth and him really early on a Sunday morning, when they had no class. Hayden waved towards them, and they all waved back. Hayden waited on the bridge for the rest of the group to join him. They met up and started to walk into the factory.

"So how did you sleep?" asked Yumi.

Hayden stretched and rubbed sleep from his eyes, "Not that well..." he said finally, "Seth slept like a baby..." he said, a little jealous.

Hayden turned and looked around at the group, they had followed him, up until about a couple of seconds ago. Hayden turned to the group as he walked backwards and said, "You coming?"

Everyone looked a bit nervous. Jeremy finally came forward and said, "Hayden...can we talk?"

"Yeah...what's up?" he said, taking a step back towards the group. Jeremy seemed to tense up and then relax once he had taken a breath.

"You guys are acting really strange..." said Hayden.

"Hayden...I know we said we trusted you, but..." Jeremy took a breath and let it out, "After we left, I did a little searching through the databases I have access to..."

Hayden didn't like where this was going, "Yes...?" he said uncertainly.

"But I ran a search for you through the state department, and there was no record of a Hayden Michaels in any of the records" said Jeremy, "I had to make sure I could trust you!", said Jeremy quickly, noticing the look on Hayden's face. Yumi took a step towards Hayden. He had lowered his head and looked like he was about to cry.

"Who...are you?" asked Yumi as calmly as she could.

Hayden exploded in a fit of rage and tears. "You want to know who I am?!", he screamed, piercing the early morning air. Everyone shushed Hayden, but that only helped to enrage him more, but he acknowledged their request, and continued his rant in a quiet fume. Hayden turned and pointed at Yumi in the chest.

"Fine, I'll tell you who I am...I'm nobody, I'm worthless, I'm TRASH!" Hayden shouted to the sky. Everyone shushed him again, and he went on, "I'm what happens when a man who is too rich for his own good, gets drunk, and fools around with the wrong person at work, and then doesn't want anything to do with my mom, or me, or even my other, unborn brother after she confronts him about it." he said in a quiet rage, his jaw quivering with anger and sadness he was trying to hold in.

"I'm what happens after a poor defenseless woman has her name dragged through the mud, by said rich snotty man, and leaves her penniless and destitute, unable to take care of herself, or her unborn child, let alone two children." Hayden said, anger growing up inside him again.

"I wasn't lying when I said I was supposed to be born a twin... but after my mom died, giving birth to me, I was left to make my way in the world. I...grew up...in an _orphanage_." said Hayden, putting a particular emphasis on the last word.

"And not the sunshine and roses kind of orphanages you see on TV where every child get adopted, and the families are nice and cheerful..." said Hayden prancing around to emphasize the anger he felt about living there, "Oh no! This was an orphanage where NO ONE got adopted...NO ONE was nice and cheerful, and NO ONE...EVER...LEFT." Hayden shouted. There was another round of shushing, and Hayden continued on, not phased at all by the rest of the group.

"I started spending a lot of time on the street, just to get away from the depressing situation. I fell in with the wrong friends, and after a while, I told them about my past. They decided they would help me get back at this rich hypocrite, so we decided to rob him."

"Nothing went according to plan...we were a bunch of kids, up against some of the best personal alarm systems money could buy." Hayden said, his anger turning to gloom, "The butler sicked the dogs on us, and the guy woke up and I think he saw my face, because...guess who turns up about a month later in a huge stretch limo?!" said Hayden, anger returning again to his face.

"Says he divorced his wife right after the scandal, had lived alone for years, saying he felt 'so sorry' for what he had done" said Hayden in a mock tone, "He picks me up off the street and slaps me down in the lap of luxury. I knew it was all a lie...it was all over the news that he had divorced his wife, not a month before he found me."

"I never wanted that! I never asked for that! Sure it never hurt that I went to the best schools, had the best clothes, and everyone wanted to be my friend, but it never was because of me, it was because of my money!" Hayden went on and on, "I was never happy, the empty promises, the "fair weather" friends, and the father who never actually wanted me..."

"Picked me up for some free publicity, the media never knew I actually was he son..." Hayden said with a sneer.

"I just wanted a father, but he would always come home drunk, or with another girl from work, or both." Hayden's anger seemed burnt out, instead replaced with tears, "I would ask him for advice, and he would throw €100 in my face and tell me to go and buy something nice, and to leave him alone."

"I returned to the street, and the gang, things didn't go well there either." said Hayden, tears rolling down his face, "And at school, I thought I had finally found some friends who wanted to be my friends for who I was, I even had found a girlfriend."

"But when my friends found out the kind of people I hung out with on the streets, they stopped hanging out with me, and my girlfriend dumped me!"

"I was left with no friends, and who was there to catch me when I fell? The dear old guys from the gang..." said Hayden with another sneer, "All they wanted was an "in" to the mansion where I lived, and they got it one night..."

"One night I wake up, and the guys are robbing us blind. I shout at them, and they take off, along with anything they might have held then." said Hayden, his anger coming back, "And then...I notice...one of them dropped something...I look, and what do I find? A locket belonging to my mother...inside I see a picture of my father, and my mother, looking happy." Hayden couldn't keep the tears from flowing now, and he sat down on the ground and continued his story between sobs.

"She...she was his wife! He couldn't tale care of her though...he hadn't made it rich yet, and they were both living out on the...street... homeless. My dad was working...two jobs...and still couldn't make ends meet!" Hayden let out a bawl, and continued on, "They accidentally got pregnant, and my mom knew she couldn't take care of a baby...not with the kind of money my dad made. So she kept it a secret...and then...my dad made it big...a story he had worked on for a while got published, and then the story got turned into a movie, and then he wrote a sequel...and _that _got turned into a movie." Hayden continued to bawl, Aelita bent down, and put an arm around Hayden to try and comfort him.

"Soon, he could afford anything he wanted...he continued to write books...and every book became an instant success at the box office." said Hayden, "My mom decided it was time to show that she was pregnant, my dad didn't take it well..."

"He realized what would happen if the press would say if they were to find out she got pregnant, the rumors, the accusations, the biting words...the press thought she was just someone from work. When my dad rose to the top, he rose alone...he never mentioned my mother, and how much of an inspiration she was to his writing." said Hayden with more sobs, "He always said she was just a secretary, my mother never knew this, and ran away from him..."

"She was left alone, and on the street again, pregnant, and away from anyone she loved...she miscarried my brother, and had me in some "hole in the wall" room in a hospital. I was taken to a orphanage soon after my mom died. No one knew my mother, but they knew my father, and they told me the media's version of things. I never even knew my mother for the woman she really was...!" Hayden sobbed more when he thought about his mom passing and then continued on...he was already this far into this story, it was too late to stop now, "My dad played the media just right though, and made the "scandal" seem like nothing, he remarried, but he never forgot about his first wife, or me...he thought he lost us all, he never even knew my mom died until he saw me..."

"After he saw a face he thought he recognized, he started digging through old photos, and realized that he saw my mom in my face. His wife saw the photographs and got angry, demanding to know who the woman was. She left him when he told her, saying that he played her for her money,...it wasn't true though...she never had money, and dad won out in court, even though he didn't care."

"All he cared about was finding me...he searched every orphanage from Paris to Reims, where my mom grew up, hoping to find me anywhere between there." said Hayden in a cold tone, "And when he finds me not far from his house one day, he takes a chance, and picks me up, and tries to make me his son again."

"But every time he saw me, it tore his heart open, driving him to drinking again. Every time he drank, he saw my mother in me more and more, and every time he was reminded of mom, he would go off and find the closest girl who looked like my mom, and sleep with her."

"I was my father's greatest joy, and my father's biggest bane." said Hayden, sobs subsiding, "After I found the locket, my dad had no choice but to tell me the truth, after that, we both resolved to do our best to honor mom's memory."

"I stopped robbing people, and tried to help those who were affected by it instead. And dad stopped drinking and sleeping with strange women. He says he's even going to write a book about it now, says it will be a big romantic hit." said Hayden with a small laugh, and another, final sob.

"Of course...I couldn't get away from my past, and the boys from the gang tried being friendly again, after I went back to get Intel on the people they robbed every night. They didn't know I knew they tried to rob me, and I kept it that way...I even have the footage from that night..." said Hayden, pulling a small memory stick out of his shirt, attached to a chain.

"I've been waiting for the right time to use it. I wanted to turn them in, but I knew if I did, I could end up beat up, or worse, they all have their own friends, and means of finding things out. We may be just a bunch of kids, but after a little practice, we were a force to be reckoned with. So I decided to stick to the shadows and play the maid every time they robbed people. But after they found out about my job helping people, I could see the Euro signs in their eyes. I knew it was time to get out of there. And that's how I ended up in a tube in your factory." Hayden looked back towards the memory stick in his hand and said, "They still don't know I know about the robbery, And I can name each one of them from the footage from this"

"Well that's what you need to do!" said Ulrich, finally speaking up through a lump in his throat. Hayden looked up with bleary eyes. He could tell that all of them had cried, but he never expected his story to be the thing that made other people cry.

"You know what...you're right...I need to go to the police and tell them about this. This might just be the only thing I can do to get my past off my back..." Hayden said with a sigh. He stood up, and turned towards the factory. He thought about Seth and his responsibility to be his brother now.

"You'll look after Seth while I'm gone right?" asked Hayden, "There's a couple things I need to get, then I'll be ready. I also should say goodbye to Seth...so he knows where I'm going" he said quickly

Everyone nodded and walked into the factory they took the elevator down to the lab, and opened the door. Seth woke up when they came in. He stretched and stood up.

"Good morning everyone!" Seth said cheerfully, then he saw Hayden and said, "Hayden...what...?"

"Cut the crap Seth...they know about dad..." said Hayden shortly, as he walked over to where he took his jacket off last night and started going through the pockets.

"Oh..." said Seth with a bit of surprise.

Hayden found what he was looking for in his jacket pocket and pulled out what looked like a key. He turned on Seth and started talking to him.

"Give me your key..." said Hayden

"I don't know what you mean..." said Seth, pulling a pretty impressive stupidity act.

"Your key! I know you know you have one...if you're an exact copy of me like Jeremy said..." said Hayden, pointing to Jeremy, "Then you'll have an exact copy of this key!" he said, holding up the key for Seth to see, "Now...WHERE IS IT?" shouted Hayden, almost coming to blows with Seth.

"Okay...okay...no need to get violent! Here..." said Seth, reaching into his jacket pocket and handing Hayden his key. Hayden also reached around the back of Seth's neck and pulled the same memory stick from around his neck and snapped the chain and took off with it.

"Hey...!" said Seth as he saw Hayden take off with his memory stick.

"Keep an eye on him, and make sure that if I'm not back in an hour that you call the authorities..." said Hayden pointing to Ulrich, then to Seth. Ulrich nodded, and took up post keeping an eye on Seth. Seth nodded as well and Seth pulled out a phone that looked identical to Hayden's, and Hayden nodded in agreement.

Hayden ran to the elevator, and punched the button on the elevator to go up, and then left the group down in the lab.

"So...how did you guys sleep?" started Seth

"Cut the crap..." said Yumi. The group sat around in silence for about five minutes until Ulrich noticed that Seth was looking worried.

"What's up Seth?" asked Ulrich.

"Umm...guys...I don't think Hayden's coming back like he promised..." said Seth.

"What? Why would you say that?" asked Ulrich.

"He said he had to go get something, and then he would be right back didn't he?" asked Seth.

"Yeah..." said Yumi, starting to take an interest in what was going on.

"I think he's going to get something from our old gang..." he said.

"What?! But that's suicide...he knows that right?" said Yumi

"Well...I think he does..." said Seth holding up a memory stick for everyone to see, "because this memory stick...isn't mine...mine was blue, and so was his..."

Everyone looked...Seth was right, the memory stick he held up was red.

"I think he planted it on me before he left, he knew I would find it...Ooo, he's not coming back is he?" whined Seth.

"Give it here!" shouted Jeremy. He booted up the supercomputer and plugged the memory stick into it. There was only one file. Jeremy clicked on it, and a video screen popped open.

"Umm...Hayden Campbell...age 14..." started off the video, Hayden was sitting in the chair in front of the supercomputer, and creating a video diary like Jeremy.

"I...I don't even know where to start...things are just so fantastical, like a page out of a science fiction movie..."

"I managed to find my way into a factory...well I didn't manage...I was chased...anyway."

"Fast forward a bit Jeremy!" said Aelita

Jeremy fast forwarded the tape close to the end. Hayden was still sitting in the chair. He gave a sigh and looked straight at the camera.

"These guys...they're not like the guys from the gang...I won't be able to tell them some story and have them believe it...they're going to do their homework, and when they search...they're going to find out...that there is no such person as Hayden Michaels."

Everyone gasped, including Seth.

"And when that time comes, I'm going to have to tell them the real story. I am not Hayden Michaels...I'm Hayden Campbell..." the video Hayden paused and took a moment. Seth could tell he was crying, as could everyone else. Hayden said through a lump, "And when that happens...I'll know that it's time to turn the evidence over to the police, and hope for the best. With this memory stick" Hayden said, holding up his blue memory stick, "I still go to jail because there is no evidence that I wasn't a part of this gang before, and that I didn't help the gang just walk into the house."

"The best piece of evidence is an old trophy my dad won for his first book. I never touched the thing, but I'm pretty sure if someone swabbed it, that it would be covered in all of their fingerprints, and put all of them in jail...all of them but me."

"But after what happened, I can't go back there, the beat up might not have happened this time, but if I go in there, and they find out what I'm doing...it could happen all over again." said Hayden with another heavy sigh, "Only this time...instead of teaching me a lesson...this time...it would be a lesson I won't forget."

Seth gasped and dialed "999"

"What are you doing?!" asked Odd

"Hayden's not coming back from there, and we need to help him!" said Seth, holding the phone up to his ear.

Next Chapter: "Dealing With Half Wits"

* * *

Okay...and scene! I lied, I wanted to throw a little tension and mistrust in there now, and even go into back story, it really helped move this story in a way I never saw coming plus...my readers were saying it was getting a little too unbelievable, with how fast the group trusted Seth and Hayden. So I'm going to leave it there! *UPDATE* Chapter 10 now posted!


	10. Dealing With Half Wits

Good morning! (or afternoon or evening depending on when you read this.) Assassin here once again with another chapter of my story. Last time, we left with a bit of a cliffhanger, so let's get right down to it so you can come down off that cliff...it's dangerous up there!

Chapter 10: "Dealing With Half Wits"

* * *

**Setting: Factory/ Gang Hideout**

**Time: Sunday Afternoon**

**POV: Lyoko gang/ Hayden**

"...this time...it would be a lesson I won't forget." said the video Hayden.

Seth gasped and dialed "999"

"What are you doing?!" shouted Odd.

"Hayden's not coming back from there, and we need to help him..." said Seth, holding the phone up to his ear.

Everyone froze when Seth said that, and stood around, like nothing happened. Seth noticed and hung up his phone and turned on the gang.

"Did you not hear me? We need to help him!" screamed Seth.

"Why should we?" said Jeremy plainly, "He lied to us, how can we trust what he said in this video?"

"W-how?" said Seth, flabbergasted, "Because...because..." Seth heaved a sigh and said, "You have no reason to trust us..."

"But I'm telling you...!" Seth started again, everyone groaned and looked away, "Look, you might not know Hayden and I as well as you guys know each other, and you haven't even known us for half as long..." Seth pleaded, "But I'm telling you...I know Hayden...I am Hayden! Um...in a way..." Seth finished in an undertone.

"Look...he...I know Hayden, he wouldn't have left that video for us..." he said, pointing to the frozen image on the screen, "If he didn't believe he wasn't coming back alive from what he plans on doing."

"And just what is it he's planning on doing anyway...he wasn't clear in the video...all he said was something about a...trophy?" said Ulrich, with a bit of acid in his voice.

"Look, you just got to believe me!" whined Seth.

"Seth's right..." said Jeremy rather suddenly

"I am...?" said Seth, "Oh...right...I am..."

"Seth's right that we need to help him, without Hayden, Seth cannot exist..." said Jeremy reviewing the program that had caused the problem in the first place.

"I've gone over the program that you're gang punched in, it is so convoluted and confusing, but I think that I found a small technicality that translates to this, if one or the other of you die in real life, then the other dies too." said Jeremy, the news felt like a ton of bricks to everyone.

"But...but..." said Seth, "There's no way Hayden could know that!"

"No one could..." said Aelita trying to comfort Seth.

"Guys..." said Yumi with a stony face, gesturing for everyone to get together in a huddle. Seth stood off to the side, pacing back and forth, worried look on his face. He would look down at his phone now and then, hoping something would happen, and then he would go back to pacing back and forth.

"What are we doing?" asked Yumi, "We're sending someone of to their death, and in doing so, we could cause the death of two people!" she said in a hushed whisper.

"What have they done for us to trust them?" said Ulrich, "They weren't even invited to join our group officially, they just kind of...stumbled upon it..."

"Ulrich! How can you say that!" whispered Aelita, "Just because we didn't get your permission for them to join...doesn't mean that we need it now to send them off to their death!"

"They are still real people, each with their own personality, and hopes and dreams..." said Odd

"And I still say we can't trust them..." said Ulrich, "Hayden lied about who he was, and Seth seemed to want to go back on his promise to never back to their old gang...you saw how he refused to give the key to Hayden...there's still some hesitancy there..."

"We can't let them die...we're playing judge, jury and executioner here, where it is not our place." said Jeremy, "Who gave us say to let them die?"

"Who gave us say to save them?" said Ulrich bluntly

"So you would let them die to keep our secret safe, and hope everything turns out right in the end?" said Yumi, her temper with Ulrich growing.

"Let's take a vote..." said Aelita, "Who is for saving Hayden, and by extension Seth, and keeping them in the group?"

"Whoa, who said anything about making them a part of the group?" said Ulrich

"We always could use more people to fight X.A.N.A, and besides, it's not like we can just throw them out, the world only knows one Hayden, and not Seth. We need to offer them both with a world they can exist side by side." said Aelita, trying to speak reason to Ulrich

"So...we're helping them no matter what I guess." said Ulrich, finally throwing his arms up in defeat.

"Are you saying you trust them?" asked Yumi, raising an eyebrow

"No, I don't trust them, but I wouldn't feel right knowing I was responsible for not only one someone's life, but two, and I let them slip through my fingers because I thought I didn't care." said Ulrich, "But what do we do? We know nothing of Hayden's plan, how can we stop an entire gang of kids from stomping all over Hayden's insides?"

"I can think of one other person who might know..." said Odd, looking over his shoulder at Seth.

Hayden was nearing his old gang's hideout. He kept the shadows as much as possible, he knew that in this time line, that his gang hadn't beat him up...yet...But that still didn't stop them from doing it this time around. He tried thinking up a plan in his head, but every one of them ended with the gang skinning him alive and wearing his pelt. Hayden shuddered to wonder what that would feel like. Instead, he decided to just do the simple way, and walk right in the front door. He thought of Seth and took a deep breath. He hoped that the rest of the other guys would take care of him. He stood up from the bushes, and walked across the street. Clouds started gathering, and Hayden could tell that it was probably going to rain later that day.

"Oi..." said one of the gang members to another, noticing Hayden walking towards them. The gang member looked, and laughed as he saw the boy walk up to them. They stood in front of him, blocking his way into the house.

"Hey...shrimp..." said one of them. He spit a loogie on the ground in front of Hayden's feet and then gave a sniff.

"Hello...Marcus..." Hayden recognized him as the mean boy who started the beating...that he never got.

"Boss wants to talk to you...says it important" said the boy Marcus, in a slow, dumb voice.

"Oh...good...I'll...get right on that!" said Hayden with a nervous chuckle.

"What's wrong with you shrimp?" said Marcus, "You act like you saw a ghost..."

"You have no idea..." said Hayden in an undertone.

"What?" said Marcus, trying to hear what Hayden said

"I mean...it's probably about my idea!" said Hayden. He sighed when Marcus nodded in agreement and moved to let him in the house.

Marcus and the other goon moved out of Hayden's way and Hayden walked up to the door. He removed one of the keys from his pocket and put it in the lock. He froze as he went to turn it, then let out a big sigh.

"C'mon shrimp!" said Marcus from behind Hayden, "Boss is a'waitin!"

"R-i-i-ight..." said Hayden nervously, _"Come on get a hold of yourself..."_ he thought

Hayden turned the key in the lock, and opened the door. Everyone looked up when he walked in. Hayden took another large breath and walked into the house. From the outside, the house looked like any other house, but with terrible landscaping...on the inside, it was no better, the walls were bare, and some of the wallpaper was peeling. The floors were bare wood, and covered with a layer of dust and crud. Three of the guys were sitting on a sagging couch, playing a video game. They paused and stared at him when he walked in. Hayden passed two more were sitting on a derelict bed, one was carving a piece of wood with his switchblade, and another was listening to very loud music through headphones. The boy with the switchblade looked up and waved at Hayden.

"Hey-y-y...David..." said Hayden, remembering the switchblade he tried pulling on him when they beat him up...Hayden had a hard time remembering that it didn't happen, and that for the time being, the guys were still his friends...sorta...

"_We'll see how long that lasts..."_ Hayden thought

Marcus gave a shout upstairs, something about Hayden arriving, and the rest of the gang came jumping out of the upstairs rooms. Most jumped over the banisters to get a view, and then landed in the back of the group. Hayden took a nervous look over his shoulder and saw the group following him getting larger. He had an eerie feeling of being in the front of a funeral procession...his funeral. Hayden reached the door at the end of the hall, and grabbed the doorknob. Hayden took another big breath. He could feel his heart in his throat, and could hear it beating in his ears. He gulped and turned the handle and entered the back room. Hayden walked in and stood in front of the ornate desk in the center of the room. The back room was a complete contrast to the rest of the house. The room was finely decorated, and had long book shelves flanking the walls. There were large windows everywhere, but most of them had boards on them, to block the sunlight coming through. Rain started to fall outside, and Hayden could hear it hit the window outside.

A man sat in a high-backed chair, puffing on a cigarette, his back turned on the group that had just came in. Instead, he focused on a small divan where two girls sat. One was reading a magazine, and another was painting her nails. Both seemed uninterested in the man, and paid no attention when Marcus cleared his throat to get the attention of the man in the high-backed chair. The man swiveled in his chair, and turned to face the small group that had gathered in front of his desk.

"Ah..." said the man noticing Hayden standing in front of him. He took another drag on his cigarette, and letting his breath out when he opened his mouth again to talk, "Hayden! Come to talk business?" the man said, blowing the smoke from his cigarette above his head.

"Y-y-yes..." said Hayden nervously.

"Are you sure? You don't sound sure..." said the man, waving his cigarette around. The rest of the gang behind Hayden laughed at the small joke, and Hayden felt like he shrunk about another couple of inches under the man's withering gaze.

"Yes, I'm ready..." said Hayden, mustering his courage.

The man in the chair turned around and clapped his hands once, the two girls on the divan sighed and rolled their eyes. They stopped what they were doing and stood up, they left through a small door in the back of the room that led to the man's bedroom.

The man turned around again and flung his arms out to his sides, in a show of curiosity and said, "Okay...let's talk business..."

Suddenly, there was a small commotion from the back of the group, "Excuse me! Coming through...excuse me...!" said a voice from the back of the group. Hayden knew that voice...it was his voice!

"Excuse me! Hey man...that's my toe..." said Seth from the back, making his way forward through the group. Seth walked forward next to Hayden and winked at him when no one was looking. Hayden felt his jaw drop, and he wasn't the only one. Everyone in the room was in disbelief. Seth threw back the hood of his jacket, and shook rain out of his dirty blonde hair.

"Hey...what did I miss?" said Seth as casually as he could. He stepped up close to Hayden.

"Seth?" whispered Hayden as Seth passed, "_What _are you doing here?" he said in an undertone so no one would hear him.

"Saving your butt from the looks of it..." said Seth in a similar tone.

"There's two of you?!" said the man in the chair.

"That's not entirely true!" said Seth turning around to face the man, and cutting off Hayden before he could talk, "I am the real Hayden, and this one!" said Seth, pointing to Hayden, "Is a fake!" Seth said in his best attorney like voice.

Everyone gasped at the accusation, and Hayden couldn't help but feel like he was in a cheesy courtroom on a 70's prime time drama. Hayden lowered his head into his hand and shook his head. If Seth managed to get them both out of this alive, he was going to be surprised.

Seth continued on, "An undercover cop who came here to get the evidence he needs to arrest each one of you..." Seth said, pointing a finger around the room at everyone there.

"But that's not possible!" said the man in the chair, "You two look exactly alike!"

"Ah yes...a clever trick..." said Seth, he walked over to Hayden, "A clever disguise...! Prosthesis to make him look like me." Seth said, grabbing hold of Hayden's face and stretching it, as if he would rip of a mask.

"Ooo...that's on there good..." said Seth, letting go of Hayden's face, Hayden scowled at Seth, and Seth flinched, he then walked over to the man's desk. He slammed his hands down on the desk, and the man behind the desk flinched.

"He planned on using footage of the night when you..." said Seth, pointing a finger at the man. The man frowned as Seth touched his nice suit, and then looked up at Seth. Seth pulled his finger back, and then went on, "When you sir...ordered his house be robbed!" said Seth in his attorney voice again.

"Well...that's good I guess...that you came here to stop him, but how did you find out about this?" asked the man.

Seth smiled and said simply, "I have my ways..." The man behind the desk nodded, and Hayden couldn't believe that these people were actually buying this. Then he thought about what kind of people he was with, and figured that it actually wasn't that hard to believe.

"He planned on using the footage on...this..." said Seth pulling out a red memory stick, "...Memory stick! And using a recording he was making now in fact." Seth walked over and dug through an empty pocket in Hayden's jacket, and pulled a recorder out of his own pocket. Seth winked and turned around. Seth pushed the button on the recorder. The tape stopped, and Seth put it down on the man's desk, face down.

"He was hoping to get a confession out of you that it was in fact, you who ordered the hit on him and his house." said Seth simply.

"Well it's a good thing you found about this before he followed through with his plan!" said the man, the man shook the ashes off his cigarette, and took another drag. Hayden could tell he was thinking.

The man shook his head and sighed, "It's certainly good because if word got out that I did call out a hit on a member of my _own gang..."_ said the man with emphasis on the last words, "Then all of us would go to jail, including Hayden here...because he helped us in!" said the man

"Wait...no..." said Seth.

The man picked up recorder and clicked the "rewind" button. The tape rewound for a second, and pushed play. There was static for a second and then the man pushed "stop".

"If you are who you say you are...then this tape will only contain the conversation that he and I had" said the man, pointing to Hayden, "If not...this tape will only have about the last thirty seconds of the conversation we just had." said the man pointing to Seth.

The man clicked the "play" button... "He was hoping to get a confession out of you that it was in fact, you who ordered the hit on him and his house." there was a pause, and then, "Well it's a good thing you found about this before he followed through with his plan!" another moment of pause, "It's certainly good because if word got out that I did call out a hit on a member of my _own gang..._Then all of us would go to jail, including Hayden here...because he helped us in!" The man clicked "stop" and looked up at Seth. Seth's smile was gone...and instead he had a look of worry.

"Nice try there you..." said the man, a look of victory on his face, "I'll admit, that was very clever..." said the man, giving a mock clap to Seth. Seth flinched and stood there still dumbfounded.

"But the real Hayden didn't know I wanted to rob his house, and so even a fake one wouldn't know...so I ask myself...how does this Hayden know?" the man laughed, "Getting me to admit that it was me that called out the hit on Hayden, that he had no part of it, and that everyone here participated" Said the man, pointing to the gang behind Seth, "Everyone _except _Hayden..." said the man, "That was a stroke of genius!" Hayden could actually hear the admiration in the man's voice. Then his tone changed, "Or you were probably just having a stroke." said the man in a threatening tone. Hayden didn't like where this was going.

"That's probably the least of your worries now...because I won't lie...I did...I ordered my gang my to rob Hayden...and now that you know...I'm afraid I'll have to kill you." said the man, standing up from behind his desk, and sitting on the edge. The man took another drag from his cigarette and blew it in Seth's face.

"And you'll die knowing that you failed, and I won!" said the man, throwing his arms up in victory and laughing, "I kill you, and whichever one of you is faking" said the man, pointing back and forth between Seth and Hayden, with a confused look on his face, "And I know I can go back to my life, knowing I won't be able to rob and hack people's computers like I used to, but knowing that I didn't go to jail today!" said the man with a laugh, "I'll just go back to robbing people of all their valuables and calling it a day..." said the man. The man grabbed the memory stick in Seth's hand and dropped it on the floor. The man lifted his foot off the ground, and slammed it down on the memory stick with a "snap!". Seth looked absolutely defeated.

The man pulled out a gun and pointed it at Seth first. Seth's eyes widened and he actually looked nervous, "Any last words?" said the man, pulling back the hammer on his gun.

"Yeah..." said Seth, gasping. Seth mumbled something into his hand and then the man leaned in to hear what he said. Seth took in a large breath and shouted, "WHY DO YOU WANT YOUR EARDRUMS BLOWN OUT?"

The man blinked at Seth and wiped spit off his face. The man looked dumbfounded. He didn't know how to respond to an outburst like that.

"What?" asked the man simply.

There was another voice from the back of the group this time, "He said...'why do you want your eardrums blown out?'" said a voice near everyone's feet. A small robot on wheels, no bigger than a softball, rolled itself into the room. The camera on the robot angled itself to look up at the man, and the voice from the robot repeated itself, "He said, 'why do you want your eardrums blown out?'"

"Jeremy?" asked Hayden, recognizing the voice coming from the robot. Seth gave Hayden a nod, and threw a pair of heavy headphones at him.

"Put those on!" said Seth, putting on his own pair. Hayden didn't question Seth, and threw the headphones on, just as the robot emitted a high pitch tone. Everyone screamed and threw their hands over their ears. The windows blew out, and everyone dropped to the floor in pain. Rain came pouring into the room, soaking everyone.

"Over here!" shouted Seth to Hayden, he pulled him over to a small case on the wall. Inside was the award that his dad won. Seth cleared the shattered glass from around it, and grabbed a pair of rubber gloves from inside his jacket. Seth pulled them on, and grabbed the trophy. He then grabbed Hayden again, and ran out the door of the office. Once outside in the rain, Seth removed his headphones and Hayden cheered.

"That was awesome! How did you know I was going to fail?" said Hayden to Seth.

"I had a feeling..." said Seth, "Plus...you can't pull one over on me...I'm you!" said Seth over the pouring rain.

"We just have one more thing to do..." said Seth to Hayden over the rain

"What's that?" asked Hayden

"Hold still!" said Seth, and he swung the trophy up to Hayden's nose and hit it.

"OW! What the heck was that for?" said Hayden, feeling his nose. Seth looked at Hayden's nose, and then dabbed the fingers of the glove he still had on in the blood that was pouring out of his nose.

"What are you doing?!" asked Hayden, trying to stop his nose from bleeding, and determining whether Seth had just broke his nose. Seth wiped the blood covered glove on the trophy, and then threw the trophy back into the house.

"Planting evidence!" said Seth, "We need to go!" said Seth.

Seth was right, Hayden could hear the robot that Jeremy was piloting, driving the members of the gang out of the house. Seth dragged Hayden over to the bushes next to the house, and they took shelter in them as the gang ran screaming out of the house, and fell on the unkempt lawn, holding their ears. The robot rolled out on the porch, and Seth popped out of the bushes and turned it off, grabbed the small robot, and stuffed it in a bag he had hidden in the bushes, so that it wouldn't get wet. Seth then tied the bag on his back, and pulled his jacket over it, the bag disappeared seamlessly into Seth's baggy jacket. The gang continued to scream as they tried to get rid of the ringing in their ears. Then another screaming filled the air. This time, it was the screaming of police sirens.

"You called the cops?" asked Hayden from the bushes.

"What else did you want me to do? Call in the clowns? By the looks of it, we have that already!" said Seth, stifling a laugh, after seeing 20 teenagers and grown man screaming their heads off in the middle of a downpour. Hayden had to admit that it did look a little funny. When the cops pulled up, Seth winked at Hayden, and then he pulled his hood up so it covered most of his face. Seth backed out of the bush and said to Hayden,

"When I give the signal, come out, and just play along!" Seth walked around the back of the cops.

The cops popped out of their squad cars, and said, "Freeze!"

"What?" said Marcus, pointing to his still ringing ears.

"F-FREEZE!" said one of the officers, trying to get across to the deaf members of the gang. When Marcus pointed to his ears again, and then shrugged, the officer gave up and instead with the other members of police to start arresting all the members of the gang.

"You got nothing on me!" said the man. Seth popped out of the bushes on the other side of the street and saw Hayden. Seth winked and pulled his hood down further over his eyes.

"Mr. Officer...?" said Seth in his best "upset child" voice, he made sure to mask his voice so that it wouldn't be the same as Hayden's. The police officer turned and look at Seth

"Hey kid...you shouldn't be here...this is a police bust, not the playground." said the officer.

"My friend was in there!" said Seth, pointing to the house, still taking in his false voice, "He was trying to get back something these guys stole from him!" then pointing to the man. The officer waved another officer into the house. The officer went in a came back a couple of minutes later with the trophy in hand. Seth let out his best dramatic gasp at the sight of the blood on the trophy. Seth then winked at Hayden in the bush, and Hayden thought he knew the plan. Hayden groaned, and fell out of the bush. His nose was still bleeding, and the officers gasped too. The man gasped too and said,

"I did not do that! I did not do that!" he pleaded as he was forced into the back of a large truck with the rest of the gang members. Seth came over to Hayden and pulled a tape recorder out of his own pocket.

"But...you didn't get the recording..." whispered Hayden, noticing the tape recorder, feigning unconsciousness.

"Be quiet...I had another one...you didn't think I would go in there without a backup plan did you?" said Seth through clenched teeth. Seth stood up and wrapped an arm around Hayden, making it look hard for him to stand up. Hayden had to admit, this was more elaborate than he had ever thought possible. Seth helped Hayden cross the yard, and he brought the tape recorder to the police officer.

"My friend tried to get the gang leader to confess...listen!" Seth clicked the tape recorder and the tape started playing, even over the roar of the rain, the words could be heard. The police officer sent another officer into the house to sweep it, then walked over to Seth to hear the recording.

"That's probably the least of your worries now...because I won't lie...I did...I ordered my gang my to rob Hayden...and now that you know...I'm afraid I'll have to kill you..." Seth clicked the tape off, and handed it to the officer.

"You're Hayden?" asked the police officer, looking right at Hayden. Hayden just nodded his head. The cop went to walk away to give the recorder to another officer. Seth elbowed Hayden in the ribs when the officer wasn't looking. Hayden thought he knew what that meant, and spoke up

"W-wait! There's more!" Seth gave him a thumbs up, and then helped him walk after the cop.

"Huh?" asked the cop, and he clicked the button again. The man's voice came out of the recorder.

"And you'll die knowing that you failed, and I won!" the tape audio got muffled at that point, but then after a second, clear audio came back, "And I know I can go back to my life, knowing I won't be able to rob and hack people's computers like I used to, but knowing that I didn't go to jail today!" the man on the tape laughed, "I'll just go back to robbing people of all their valuables and calling it a day..." There was a small "snap" heard, and Seth elbowed Hayden again.

"T-that's when he used the trophy to hit me!" said Hayden, taking the cue from Seth. The man on the tape asked for any last words and then the tape stopped. The officer looked convinced, but he had one more question.

"How did the glass blow out in the house? And why are these guys deaf, and you aren't?" asked the officer to Hayden.

Seth quickly pulled the bag with the robot in it off his back and slid it into Hayden's hands behind his back. Hayden looked at Seth, and Seth stared at Hayden, hoping he would know what to do.

"I-I had a backup plan..." said Hayden, "I got this robot, and hid him in the house before I entered the back office..." continued Hayden, noticing Seth, he was giving Hayden a small pat on the back in congratulations for getting the story Seth wanted Hayden to tell. Hayden produced the small robot from behind his back and turned it back on. Hayden could hear Jeremy fake a loading sequence through the microphone, and then Jeremy triggered the high-pitched sound. The police officer and everyone shouted, and covered their ears, and Hayden turned it off again. Seth quickly slipped Hayden a pair of the headphones and Hayden knew what to do from there.

"I had some headphones hidden up my sleeve, that kept me from being affected from the noise."

"That was pretty smart of you kid...you build that yourself?" asked the officer.

"Umm..." said Hayden. Seth shook his head and Hayden got what he meant

"No...a friend built it for me...he was concerned I wouldn't come back after asking the gang who robbed me for my dad's stuff back." said Hayden. Now it was Seth's turn to be surprised, he didn't think all of that out, and had no idea how he was going to explain why Hayden was in the house in the first place.

"I even thought I would be able to bluff them out with some footage I had..." finished Hayden, handing over his blue memory stick, "I can put a name to a face to everyone in that footage." said Hayden.

"Very good son, but I think we can take it from here..." said the officer, taking the memory stick, the trophy, and the recorder, "And next time...call the police _before_ you decide to take on a dangerous gang...not _after_." he said, walking away.

The other officers that had been sent to clear out the house came back out with boxes and boxes of stuff, the two girls, and several guns. An officer handed a box to Hayden, and Hayden looked inside. It was all the stuff that the gang hadn't been able to sell, or that he hadn't been able to slowly steal back.

"I saw this box, and heard your name...your Campbell's kid aren't you?" the officer said.

"Yes...why do you ask?" asked Hayden. Seth ducked his head, and left Hayden to talk to the officer.

"Your dad came to us, looking for help to help him find you. We couldn't do much, but I'm glad to hear that he finally found you!" said the officer with a smile, "You would do your old man proud...if only he had another one like you on whom he could rely on." said the officer with a tip of his hat, and he walked away.

"Yeah...if only..." said Hayden, thinking of Seth.

The officer in charge stood in front of the gang leader and said, "Brock Raymond, for assault of a minor, armed robbery, confession to commit more armed robbery, attempted murder, prostitution, and the illegal obtaining of illegal arms for use in criminal activities or illegal re-sell, and many other crimes I don't care to list, I am placing you and your gang under arrest. You can face up to about 25 years...or life..." Brock growled at the police officer, "Do we need to add assaulting a police officer?"

Brock looked like he had been stung. He looked over at Hayden standing in the rain, box in hand.

"Him! He's in on all of this!" said Brock pointing to Hayden, "Him and the one next to him that looks just like him!" The officer looked, Hayden was still standing there, but when everyone wasn't looking, Ulrich slipped up next to him, wearing Seth's jacket. The officer looked back towards Brock with a look of disbelief.

"Come on you!" said the officer, forcing Brock back into the truck with the rest of the gang members. The officer hit the back of the truck, then the truck drove off. The officer looked over at Hayden, "Unless there's anything else you need to tell us, you can go Mr. Campbell, have a nice day, or something like that..." said the officer through the rain

"Come on..." whispered Ulrich to Hayden.

Ulrich drug up the street, to a small underpass where everyone was taking cover from the rain. Odd was carrying a large remote control, and Aelita and Yumi were taking turns looking through a pair of binoculars. Jeremy had on a headset plugged into the remote control Odd had in his hands. Seth was sitting on the damp ground, running a towel through his hair to dry it. Everyone cheered when Hayden and Ulrich showed up.

"H-how did you guys know how to find me?" asked Hayden, taking off his jacket and wringing out all the water.

"Thank Seth, not us!" said Jeremy, taking off the headset and taking the remote control from Odd. Hayden handed back the small robot, and Jeremy took it all and packed it in his bag. Hayden didn't know what to say. He felt tears welling up in his eyes.

"I don't blame you if you guys don't trust me after all of this..." said Hayden.

Aelita put a hand on his shoulder, and then Odd followed suit, putting a hand on his other shoulder. Yumi joined in the circle, putting an arm on Aelita's shoulder. Jeremy put a hand on Odd's shoulder, and then Seth joined in, putting a hand on Yumi's shoulder. Ulrich joined in last...his mistrust of Hayden and Seth seemed to die as he put his hand on Seth's shoulder, and then on Jeremy's, completing the circle. Hayden looked around the circle, and smiled and he said,

"But I sure as hell trust you guys with my life anytime!"

Everyone laughed.

Next Chapter: "Making the Arrangements"

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Okay...I think that's a good place to end...what do you guys think? *UPDATE* Chapter Eleven is now posted!


	11. Making the Arrangements

Hey there my fellow Code Lyoko fans! Welcome back to another chapter of my story. So...after the arrest of Hayden and Seth's old gang, the two of them are free to live their lives how they please, so we're off to Kadic! But not without permission from dad! Oh and thanks to all my readers who helped push my story over 200 views last night!

Chapter 11: "Making the Arrangements"

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**Setting: Factory/Campbell Residence/ Kadic Academy**

**Time: Monday Morning**

**POV: Seth and Hayden**

Seth and Hayden were still sleeping in the lab when Jeremy and the rest of the Warriors came into the lab. They had come to talk to them before they had class that morning.

"They are so calm when sleeping..." whispered Yumi, "Look at Hayden...or...is that Seth?"

"Look at the nose..." whispered Ulrich.

"What?" asked Yumi.

"Never mind..." said Ulrich.

Hayden and Seth stirred in their sleeping bags and sat up. They saw the gang and both gave a bleary smile. The group waved back and Hayden and Seth wiggled their way of their sleeping bags and stood up and joined the rest of the group around the computer. Odd and Ulrich pulled food out of their bags that they had snuck out of the cafeteria and threw it at Hayden and Seth. Hayden grabbed a banana and Seth grabbed a croissant and both ate like they hadn't eaten in days. Jeremy turned on the supercomputer and connected to his computer in his room.

Jeremy opened up all sorts of files that he stored on his personal computer and went through them as he talked, he started talking to Seth and Hayden

"I've got good news and bad news. The good news is I've been working on getting you guys into Kadic with us, and for Hayden, that's been the easy part. He had paperwork on his identity before he even ran into us, so it was no problem to work it into the school's database and enroll you as a new student." said Jeremy to Hayden, "But the real problem is trying to come up with a completely new file for Seth, he may be a copy of Hayden, but getting his info is not as easy as copying Hayden's file, he needs a totally different identity, and that's easier said than done." said Jeremy

Seth's face turned from a smile to a frown, ever since he had been brought to the world, everything seemed to be one bad thing after another. But Jeremy noticed Seth's frown and added,

"Just because it's hard, doesn't mean it can't be done..." he said, "I'm working to help Aelita get a new identity." Aelita looked at Jeremy and smiled.

"I'll get working on that after class tonight, but I need you guys to get permission from your dad, Kadic is a nice school, and it takes parent or guardian permission to go there." said Jeremy, pulling two forms out of his bag and handing one to Hayden, and the other to Seth."

"You mean...I have to go see my dad?" asked Hayden, his mouth still full of banana. Jeremy nodded; Hayden Swallowed and went on, "Okay...that's not my problem..." he said, "My problem is...I have to go see my dad...with Seth...and try to explain...why I have a twin..." said Hayden, "And it's not like I can just tell him 'Oh...dad...I was chased by my gang of friends that you don't want me hanging around with...and then I was beat up...and then I was CLONED...' because that conversation would go over well...not to mention it would blow our secret!"

Odd threw up his hands and said, "Hey, that's your problem...not mine...I have a big math final today, and I need to brush up on my origami before I get to class..." said Odd in a serious tone.

Hayden raised an eyebrow and looked at Ulrich, "Is he serious?" asked Hayden.

Ulrich nodded and everyone laughed. Jeremy shut down the supercomputer and then the Lyoko gang went to class. Hayden and Seth took a moment to clean up the lab and then Hayden pulled on his jacket and Seth did the same. Hayden's jacket was still a bit damp from yesterday, but he knew that it would dry fast. He folded up the form that Jeremy gave him and put it in the pocket of his jeans. Seth just crumpled up his form and pushed it down into his pocket. Hayden shook his head. Over the few days he had been with Seth, he noticed some differences between his personality and Seth's. Hayden asked Seth if he was ready to leave, and Seth nodded. Hayden punched the button to call the elevator and they both took the elevator to the surface. Once on the bridge Hayden turned to Seth and said,

"Okay, I've meant to ask you...if you really are me, then you will know parkour like me..."

"Race to dad's house?" said Seth nodding

"You read my mind...On your mark...get set..." said Hayden, bending down into a runner's start.

"GO!" said Seth taking off before Hayden could finish.

"Hey! No fair!" said Hayden, chasing after Seth.

Seth ran to the end of the bridge, and when he reached the end, he vaulted over the edge, and landed on the walkway below that ran next to the river and rolled to break his fall. Hayden ran all the way to the and, rounded the corner on the bridge, and took the upper road. Seth showed up Hayden, (and mostly just showed off), by running up the banked, concrete sides of the canal, and then flipping off of it and landing on the walkway again and continuing to run along the river bank. Hayden had a harder time, when he decided to take the upper road, he never accounted for benches, signs, and the occasional car that would try and run a stop sign. Hayden thought quickly and jumped over the small sedan. The owner of the car honked as Hayden jumped off his roof and kept running down the sidewalk into a more forested part of town. Seth was laughing all the way, and Hayden was getting winded, but Seth seemed ready to go.

When the river stopped going in the direction they needed to go, Seth ran up the concrete embankment, and vaulted over Hayden's head. Hayden gasped at Seth's skill at parkour. Maybe he wasn't exactly an exact copy of Hayden. Seth seemed better at everything than he was...

It wasn't long until Seth and Hayden were running up the long driveway to his father's large estate. Seth and Hayden slid across the large porch and put a hand on the door at the same time.

"I GOT HERE FIRST!" said Hayden and Seth at the same time, "No I did...no I did!" continued the twins. The door flew open and in the doorway stood a man in a long, red bath robe, and striped pajama bottoms.

"Hey you kids...! I told you to stay off my lawn!" said the man, seeing nobody, he looked down and saw his son, "Oh...Hayden..."

"Dad!" said Hayden looking up at Mr. Campbell.

"Hayden! Where have you been? You haven't been home in days!" said Mr. Campbell, bending down and picking up Seth instead.

"And who is this with you?" said their dad, looking at Hayden, "Wha-what?" said Mr. Campbell, looking at Seth, and then back to Hayden, and then at Seth, and then back to Hayden.

"Umm...dad?" started Hayden.

"Come in the house now...we have a lot to talk about..." said their dad, pulling Hayden and Seth in the house by the collar, then slamming the door behind him. Their dad walked them into house, through a couple well decorated hallways, and then into a large kitchen. Their dad sat them down on two tall stools sitting in front of a fine, granite countered island that took up most of the main cooking area. He then started going through a high cabinet and muttering to himself.

"Umm...dad?" asked Hayden, noticing his dad's unkempt appearance. His hair graying hair was unkempt, and his face was unshaven. The bathrobe he had on was ratty and had several stains on it. His pajama bottoms were no better, and the slippers he had on were falling apart.

"Umm...Dad!" said Hayden, trying to get his attention. Their dad turned around and looked at Seth, and then Hayden. He had a bottle in his hand, and then he turned and grabbed a short cup and filled it with ice from an ice hopper in the island. He walked over to the large window at the other end of the kitchen and stared out it. He then poured the liquid from the bottle into the cup and then threw it back into his mouth and swallowed the drink.

"Dad! You promised you would stop drinking!" shouted Hayden, seeing the bottle of liquor in his father's hand.

"What was I supposed to do...?" slurred his father, Hayden could tell that it wasn't the first drink he had consumed that day.

"You hadn't come home in days! I was starting to think about your mother again, and how...how I lost her!" said their dad, starting to cry.

"Okay dad, let's calm down..." said Hayden, standing up from the stool and walking around the island and the large kitchen table that could seat up to 20.

He walked up to his father and took the bottle from his father's quivering hand. He walked over to the trash can and threw the bottle down the chute to the trash bin in the garage. Hayden then walked back to his father, his father was clearly shaken, and the glass in his hand clattered with the ice inside as his hands shook as he stared out the window into the large garden just outside the glass window. Hayden took the glass out of his father's hand and set it down on the table, and using Seth's help, they helped their father down the hallway and up the grand stairway and into the bathroom. Shielding their eyes before doing so, they helped their dad disrobe and into the large tub. They poured their dad a tub and left him to clean up. They waited until they heard the tub drain, and the electric razor run, and then their dad came out wearing a nice pair of khaki slacks and a red striped polo shirt. Their dad sighed as he walked out of the bathroom, and down the grand staircase and back to the kitchen. Hayden and Seth tied to keep up after him.

"Dad! Umm...what's up?"

"Nothing! It's a great day, and I'm going to enjoy it!" said Mr. Campbell, marching down the hall in at a quick pace.

"Great...so umm...my..." said Hayden, looking at Seth for the word he was looking for, "...brother..." he said with uncertainty.

"What brother? You don't have a brother..." said their dad simply, not turning to look at Hayden and Seth as he walked down the hall.

"Umm...dad...are you okay?" said Hayden, looking at Seth.

"Yeah...just fine!" said Mr. Campbell, reaching the kitchen.

"Are you sure? Because I was sure you saw my brother just a couple of minutes ago..." said Hayden

"I was drunk a couple of minutes ago...I couldn't be sure what I saw." said their dad.

He went into the kitchen and turned his back on the boys and went through the cabinets. He grabbed a bowl and then went around the kitchen gathering up the things he would need for a bowl of cereal. He closed his eyes and hummed a tune as he walked around the kitchen, ignoring Hayden and Seth. Mr. Campbell sat down at one end of the table and poured cereal into the bowl and then poured milk over it and started eating the cereal. Mr. Campbell kept his eyes closed and hummed through bites of cereal. Hayden and Seth looked at each other, then sat down. Their dad opened his eyes, and looked when he heard Hayden pull out a chair and sit down. He smiled at him, mouth still full of cereal. Then he heard another chair get pulled out on the other side of the table, and Seth sat down. Mr. Campbell looked at Seth, and then at Hayden, and then at Seth, and then back to Hayden. His jaw dropped, and the cereal he had in his mouth fell out and back into his bowl.

"B-b-but...you said that you didn't have a brother!" said their dad, pointing at Seth, then Hayden, getting the two of them mixed up.

"And...you said he died!" he said pointing back to Seth, then back to Hayden.

"Umm...dad?" said Hayden, "I'm Hayden..." pointing to himself.

Mr. Campbell looked confused, he looked back and forth one more time and then put his head in his hands.

"I need a drink..." he said, head still bowed. He stood up and looked through his cupboards again.

"Dad! Dad you promised!" said Hayden, standing up from the table.

"Calm down..." he said, he pulled his head out of the cabinet and in his hand was a bottle of water, "I meant a drink of water...not alcohol..." Hayden sighed and sat back down.

Mr. Campbell came back to sit down at the table and kept eating his cereal.

"Mr. Campbell...umm...Dad?" said Seth.

Mr. Campbell swallowed his cereal and said, "Yes?"

"Mr. Campbell...I'm your son too..." said Seth, a little unsure about himself as well.

"Well how come Hayden didn't ever tell me about you..." said Mr. Campbell trailing off, unsure of Seth's name

"Seth..." he said.

"How come Hayden never told me about you Seth?" said Mr. Campbell in a whimsical mood to Hayden.

"Umm..." said Hayden.

"Umm...Mr. Camp...Dad..." said Seth, "He never knew I was alive until a week ago when I showed up at the orphanage where he used to live...I had no idea who my parents were, but someone there said I looked like another person they had there recently." said Seth, coming up with a story.

"I went looking and I ran into Hayden, and we just kind of...hit it off!" said Seth nervously.

"Well that's good..." said Mr. Campbell. Hayden and Seth couldn't believe that he was actually buying this.

"So that's why you were gone for so long this weekend?" asked Mr. Campbell.

"Yeah...I was...introducing him to my friends..." said Hayden, trying to be as creative as Seth.

"Not those good for nothing gang members you ran with?" asked Mr. Campbell, raising a threatening eyebrow.

"Umm...No! I was introducing him to my new friends, they go to another school...nearby!" said Hayden.

"I actually heard in the news that the gang got arrested yesterday..." said Seth, trying to take the heat off Hayden.

"Really? Hmm...I haven't had Roger bring me the news yet today..." said Mr. Campbell, mentioning their personal butler.

"I was just so worried about you!" said Mr. Campbell looking at Hayden, "But I guess I didn't have to worry because he was with you!" he said looking at Seth.

"Umm...dad, that's why were here..." said Hayden, getting down to the meat of the matter.

"What's that?" Mr. Campbell said, wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin, and looking towards Hayden.

"With the arrest of the old gang, some of them might come looking for me, and if they can't find me...they might come for Seth to get to me, since I have evidence that could put them away for life maybe" Mr. Campbell looked worried where this was going. Hayden pulled out the Kadic form and slid it over to his dad to look at.

"The police suggested I change schools...and my name...so that it would be harder for them to find me..." he said, and Mr. Campbell started reading the form.

"And they suggested that Seth go with me too, so that I could keep an eye on him..." Hayden said, gesturing for Seth to pull his form out and give it to their dad. Seth smoothed out his form and gave it to Mr. Campbell. Mr. Campbell looked at the two forms in his hands and started to cry.

"I will be close by! And I could still visit you on weekends!" said Hayden, trying to calm his father.

"Th-that's not it..." said Mr. Campbell, "I'm just so glad that not only do I have one son now...I have two! The sons I never thought I would have! And I am just so proud that this time around...I am able to give them exactly what my father could never give to me..." he said.

"I always had dreams of going to a fine school, and having a father that loved me, but it didn't happen for me...and when I grew up, I wanted nothing but to offer the best for my children so that they could end up better than I did!" said Mr. Campbell, changing his tone now to a more positive one.

"But from the look of it now...you guys are going to have to do better than I did to end up retiring richer than me!" Mr. Campbell said, looking around the large estate he lived in.

"Make me proud sons!" he said, pulling a pen out of his pocket and signing the forms, he handed one to Hayden and the other to Seth, "And I would be proud to call you my son." he said as he handed Seth his form. "I will take care of any paperwork, and I will be happy to have you as my son..." he said to Seth. Seth nodded and smiled. Mr. Campbell gave him a playful punch like he did when joking around with Hayden and repeated, "Make me proud son..."

"I will...dad!" Seth said, and Mr. Campbell hugged Seth.

After a little catching up between the three of them, and perhaps a bit too much of made up stories on Seth's side to cover for his whereabouts for the past 14 years, Seth and Hayden waved goodbye to their father, and Mr. Campbell waved back as he closed the door. Seth hadn't felt this happy...since...he couldn't remember! He might have had Hayden's memories, but he felt like a newborn baby compared to Hayden. Hayden and Seth ran back to the factory just as the sun fell. Not long after getting back to the lab, Jeremy and the others came to visit them. Hayden handed over his form and so did Seth. Jeremy took them and added them to the large pile of paperwork he had to fill out with Hayden and Seth's new information, and the paperwork to enroll them at Kadic. When it came time to put in a new name, Hayden and Seth both decided it would be safe to change their last names.

"Michaels was my mother's maiden name, and I liked it when I was growing up, so that's what I went by...except when I was with the gang. They only called me "shrimp" or "shorty". I don't even think they knew my real last name..." said Hayden thinking about it.

"So it's safe to say...I'll be safe again as Hayden Michaels, and you as Seth Michaels..." he said, looking at Seth.

Seth nodded and Jeremy inserted it into the paperwork he needed to change their identities. It took them about another half an hour to insert Hayden's info, and fake Seth's so that it made it look like everything was in order for them to enroll. Jeremy found the documents Seth would need for Mr. Campbell to officially adopt Seth, and sent it with Hayden for Mr. Campbell to fill out. The next day, everything was official, and Mr. Campbell was officially Seth's father. With everything in order, and new identities in place, Hayden and Seth were free to move into Kadic with the rest of the group.

"Well, everything seems to be in order Mr. Campbell, your sons will make fine additions to our school." said Principal Delmas the next day as he sat down to meet with Hayden and Seth and their father.

"Welcome to Kadic Mr. Michaels and Mr. Michaels" said Mr. Delmas shaking Seth's hand, then Hayden's. Mr. Campbell seemed upset that his sons had to go away and change their names, but he knew it was for the better, and smiled and shook the principal's hand.

"I hope so too!" he said and he stood and left so that the principal could talk to the boys, "Don't forget to come see me before you leave...I have something for you guys as a bit of a "going away" gift." He said with a wink. The boys were excited to see what it was. Mr. Campbell walked out and closed the door, and Principal Delmas cleared his throat to get the boys' attention again.

"Okay boys, here are your schedules..." the principal said, handing them both their class schedules, "I believe that you already know Miss Ishiyama, she is in all of your classes, and will be your guide for your first week here. And when she is not here, a Mr. Stern and a Mr. Della Robbia will be your guides for the day-to-day activities. I believe you said you know them as well." said Principal Delmas.

Mr. Delmas' tone changed a bit and he added, "And I hope that you two can be a good example to them and their little group..." he said trailing off, he adding something about sneaking off, then looked back to Seth and Hayden. Seth and Hayden exchanged glances and smiled at each other.

"Also, with the new semester coming up, I need someone in the dorms to keep an eye on things for me..." Principal Delmas said, "I need two people to keep an eye on things in the dormitories, and report to me any goings on, and I think that you two would be perfect!" Seth and Hayden nodded.

"Fresh faces to keep an eye on things, and of course, you would handle any minor problems and disputations that might occur on either floors. Of course your duties are not to exceed going into a girl's bedroom..." explained Principal Delmas, "That's why I am appointing two girls for the girl's dormitories, to work with you in co-ordination if the need arises." said Principal Delmas

"However I do not expect any problems to crop up, and if they do, it would probably be a simple as 'this person stole this' or...'this person said this', nothing I'm sure you boys wouldn't be able to handle." said the principal, offhandedly.

"And of course with this new office, comes better accommodations, your father will not pay extra for this..." he said noticing Hayden's look on his face, "They come with the privilege of being dorm monitors, and can be revoked if or when I decide." warned Principal Delmas. He trailed off again, and said something about his daughter having the position, and then how it was now open. Seth and Hayden hadn't met his daughter, but they figured if the position was open, then she must have done something.

Hayden and Seth looked at each other and nodded at the principal. The principal smiled at the boys and pushed a document for them to sign. Hayden signed it, then Seth. The principal extended his hand, and then Hayden and Seth shook it.

"Welcome to Kadic Academy Mr. Michaels and Mr. Michaels!" said Principal Delmas.

It wasn't long until Hayden and Seth were moving into their new room in the dorms. Ulrich and Odd helped them move their few belongings into their room. Hayden laid on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, and Seth was unpacking some things from a box. Odd was ogling the contents of the mini-fridge that their dad had bought them as the "going away" gift. And Ulrich was helping them hang up posters. When all their things had been packed away, Ulrich and Odd hung out, waiting for Aelita and the rest of the group to come see their new room. There was a commotion outside and shouting.

"Duty calls..." said Hayden, sitting up from the bed.

But then the commotion stopped, and there was a knock on the door.

"Ulrich dear? Are you in there?" said a sickly sweet voice from the other side of the door.

"I wouldn't answer that if I were you..." said Ulrich, warning Hayden as he went to answer the door.

Hayden shrugged and looked through the peephole. A girl was leaned up against the door, and listening to the noise inside. Hayden sighed and stepped to one side and pulled the door open. The girl fell into the room as soon as he opened the door. The girl looked up at the people in the room, and gave a small "oh." when she realized she was being stared at. She stood up and brushed the dirt from her pink blouse. When she was finished, she turned on Hayden.

"Hey! What's the big idea? Do you know who I am?" said the girl, puffing up her chest.

"Elizabeth Delmas, from the sound of it..." said Hayden, not batting an eye as he closed the door. Principal Delmas had told Hayden about Sissi before he left his office, and told her how much of a handful she could be.

Elizabeth gave a sound of disgust, "If you know who I am, then you will know that I don't like being called 'Elizabeth'! I prefer being called SISSI!" Sissi screeched. Noticing Ulrich in the room, Sissi changed her tone and glided up to Ulrich...

"Ulrich deeear..." she said in her sickly sweet voice, "I had just heard that you had new _freaks _in your group, and I came to meet them, where are they?" she said, looking around.

"Right behind you...Sissi _dear_..." said Ulrich with as much acid in his tone as he could muster.

"What?! These two dorks?" she said, looking at Hayden and Seth, "How can you tell them apart?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"How can you tell those two dorks you call friends apart?" shot Ulrich back. Odd laughed at the joke and hit his head on the roof of the mini-fridge.

Sissi growled and said, "You guys make me so mad!"

"If you have a problem with it, take it up with the dorm monitors..." said Ulrich plainly.

"Dorm monitors? They got someone new? Who are they? Where can I talk to them?" asked Sissi.

"Right behind you..." said Ulrich again.

"What?!" screeched Sissi again, "When my father hears about this...!"

"Your father gave us the position..." said Seth, flopping down on his bed.

"Now why would he do that?" asked Sissi.

"Because he trusts us...unlike you...we heard all about your failed attempt at being dorm watch" said Hayden. Sissi growled again, Hayden was having fun.

"Well...I bet he didn't give you all the perks of being dorm monitor!" Sissi retorted.

"You mean the two full sized beds, instead of twin..." said Seth, listing things on his fingers.

"A larger wardrobe..." said Hayden, pointing to the large wardrobes on either side of the room.

"The ability to have a mini-fridge..." said Seth, pointing to it under the desk, and Odd who was still inside it, chowing down on their food.

"And our own bathroom...?" said Hayden, pointing to a door near the middle of the large room.

"And many others I lost track, or just don't care..." said Seth, throwing his arms up in exhaustion.

"Wha...he never gave me any of those things!" screamed Sissi.

"We know..." said Hayden, "They're new to the job. After one of the teaching departments got cut last semester, your dad had a couple of staff room he had to fill, so he decided to reward those who became dorm monitors with the rooms that were vacant."

"Well who gets the other room downstairs?" asked Sissi

"Emily DeLuc, and Claire Girard..." said Seth, naming the names on his fingers.

"What?!" screeched Sissi again. Hayden and Seth were getting tired of this girl.

"Those two snobs get a room like this?" said Sissi looking around.

"If you have a problem...take it up with the dorm monitors downstairs...maybe they won't listen to you either..." said Ulrich, crossing his arms.

Everyone laughed and Sissi left in a huff. Jeremy peeked his head in as soon as Sissi left and said, "We miss something?"

"Just hurricane Sissi blowing through here and leaving a bad feeling in the air." said Odd, standing up from the now empty fridge.

Everyone laughed again and Jeremy opened the door and let Aelita and Yumi in with him. Everyone looked around the plush accommodations and found something they liked it about it.

"I like that you have your own shower in your room..." said Ulrich, "If I had to name the amount of times I had to wait for a shower because Odd was hogging it, I would lose track..."

"Hey!" said Odd, "I don't hog the shower...I just need my time in there to make myself _irresistible _to the women..." Odd said smoothly.

"I like the bed..." said Aelita, "I've always thought that the beds here in this world were too small..." she said, holding her back in explanation. Yumi apologized, Aelita had been sleeping at Yumi's parent's house after coming to the real world after being trapped in Lyoko.

"I like the desk..." said Jeremy simply, "If I had that much room for more equipment...freeing Aelita would have been so much easier..." Aelita blushed, and so did Jeremy.

"I like the wardrobes..." said Yumi, "I would have so much more room for clothes..." she said, imagining it to herself.

"What clothes? All you wear is the same thing!" asked Odd, "Ooh! Maybe if you had a bigger wardrobe, you might wear better clothes, and then Ulrich wouldn't be afraid to ask you out! Ulrich...! I know what you can get Yumi for her birthday!" It was Ulrich's turn to blush, and Yumi turned and red and tried hitting Odd.

"What do you like about it Hayden?" asked Aelita, trying to change the subject.

Hayden looked at Seth and then said, "I get to share it with Seth..."

"Ditto!" said Seth.

After one more tour around the room, and Ulrich asking whether he could use their shower when he wanted, Hayden and Seth waved goodbye to the group as they all went back to their own rooms, and Yumi went home to her family. Hayden got ready for bed and Seth followed after him. They both bid the other goodnight and went to bed.

In the middle of the night, Seth was racked with nightmares. He was sitting in a courtroom with Brock at the witness stand. Seth made an accusation, but no words came out of his mouth. Brock just pointed and laughed, Seth looked down and he was in his underpants! The jury laughed at him as well and Seth looked as the jurors' faces turned into a member of their old gang, each twisted and evil. Seth was so embarrassed, and tried to cover up. The scene changed and Seth was standing in the courtyard of the school at night. He saw Hayden in the distance and waved to him. Hayden saw Seth and waved back. There was a shot in the air and Hayden crumpled. Seth felt his heart stop, and he passed out.

Seth woke with a start and in a cold sweat. He looked at his hands and then over to Hayden. Hayden was sleeping soundly, unaware of anything that had just happened. Everything was okay...it was just a dream. Seth closed his eyes and laid back down. Seth tried to clear his mind, but the dream he had...seemed..._too real_.

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Okay! We see a bit of conflict as we head into the main story of Season 2. I plan on adding this story to the main Code Lyoko story line right where Season 2 starts at "A New Order" So much happens in that episode that I can't leave it out of my story. If you have another episode you want to see, or have any other suggestions, PM me, or write a review.


	12. Good Life

Hey everybody! Thanks for sticking around with my story to this point. Now that we are this far into the story I'm going to merge my story in with the Code Lyoko storyline, starting with Season 2's episode "A New Order". I'm going to loosely follow the story (Wouldn't want to be sued for plagiarism...) I'm going to be taking any suggestions for other episodes you want to see, or brand new ideas for stories you've always wanted to see happen in the Code Lyoko universe. If you want to send an idea, write a review, or send me a PM (I will be accepting any and all ideas...as long as they are good!)

Chapter 12: "Good Life" (Based loosely on the events of the Code Lyoko episode "A New Order")

* * *

**Setting: Kadic/ Lyoko**

**Time: 1st Day of the new semester**

**POV: Lyoko Gang**

Seth and Hayden got up early the first day of the new semester. They both showered in their own shower and got dressed. They then walked down each side of the hall, knocking on all the doors to wake up all the boys in the dormitory. There were grumbles and shouts as they did this, no one wanted to be woken up this early, the first day of the new semester. Ulrich and Odd were already up, and so was Jeremy. Everyone went to get in line to take an early morning shower, and Hayden and Seth tried to keep order in the line so that everything went smoothly. Already, people were liking the way Hayden and Seth were running things, especially when they kicked Odd out of the bathroom for using it for too long. Odd didn't take it too hard, but everyone cheered when they were able to get through the shower _before_ breakfast started.

Everyone gathered at breakfast and Jeremy leaned in to talk to everyone that were there in a hushed tone.

"As you all know, I've been working on programming vehicles for you all, and fortunately, Hayden and Seth have been a great help in programming them." nodding in thanks to Hayden and Seth

"It's nothing..." said Seth, pointing to Hayden and himself, "We've had some experience programming computers when we..." Seth trailed off when he thought about the gang that Hayden used to run with. He had had problems with nightmares about the gang, and about Hayden. Seth hadn't told anyone about them yet. He didn't want to worry anyone about them.

"Anyway, the vehicles are almost done, and I thought since we don't have class until later because Mrs. Hertz is having the nature excursion later today for the Eighth and Ninth graders." said Jeremy, "That we would go and try them out. Also, we don't know what Hayden and Seth can do, I want to see what their Lyoko powers are. It won't take too long...I've already called the girls."

Everyone agreed, and they left the cafeteria for the factory. They met Aelita and Yumi on the bridge, and they all ran into the factory. Once in the lab, Jeremy got out of the elevator, and everyone went down a level to the scanners. Jeremy booted up the supercomputer, and put in the earpiece he would need to communicate with everyone while they were on Lyoko.

"Ladies first gentlemen!" said Jeremy, calling down a level to the boys.

Ulrich, Odd, Seth and Hayden stepped out-of-the-way, and let Aelita and Yumi step into a scanner. Once inside, the doors to the scanners closed, and Jeremy started up the virtualization process. A couple of seconds later, the scanner doors popped open, and the scanners were empty.

"All aboard!" said Jeremy

Ulrich and Odd took the next round in the scanners, and then it was Seth's and Hayden's turn. Hayden was uncomfortable getting into one of the tubes after his first experience with them. But he didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to be helpful to the gang. Hayden stepped into the tube and then Seth stepped into a different one. Jeremy started up the process and Hayden could hear him as he went through the process.

"Transfer...Hayden, Transfer...Seth...Scanner...Hayden...Scanner...Seth...Virtualization!"

Hayden felt as though his mind was ripped away from his body, and then his vision cleared and his body was created in his virtual form on Lyoko. Hayden dropped from the air, and landed on his butt, Seth crashed down next to him as well.

"OW!" they both said at the same time. They stood up and rubbed their butts to try and make them feel better.

"Why did no one warn us that would happen?" asked Hayden, looking at the rest of everyone.

"Oops..." said Odd, shrugging his shoulders. Jeremy's voice came from the sky.

"Welcome to Lyoko guys..." said Jeremy's voice.

"We've been here before Jeremy..." said Seth, but then he got a good look around, "But never to this sector!" Seth said, noticing the bright light of the Desert Sector.

Jeremy ignored Seth and typed some things into the supercomputer. He opened up the digital profile of Hayden, then Seth. He took a quick look over it, and then said, "Okay, in order for you guys to know everything that you can do, I'm going to read out what your powers are, and how you activate them."

"Okay, who are we going to start with?" asked Jeremy's voice.

"Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me!" said Seth, holding his hand up in the sky.

"Put your hand down, Jeremy can't see that!" said Hayden, reaching up and pulling Seth's arm back down by his side.

"Okay...Seth...powers...okay here we go..." said Jeremy's voice from the sky.

"Okay, I'm going to start from the basics of clothing and work my way up to powers eventually." said Jeremy's voice, "One hood and mask...black..." said Jeremy

Seth felt up his face and said, "Check!"

"One set of leather armor, full sleeve, and black..." said Jeremy

"Check!" said Seth, looking down at his chest.

"One pair of cotton pants, ankle length, black..." said Jeremy, continuing on down the list.

"Check...and might I say looking really snazzy." Seth said. Everyone rolled their eyes, and Jeremy went on.

"One black belt, one pair of black, knee-high boots...and one pair of cuffed black, form-fitting gloves." said Jeremy

"Check and check! You got it all Jeremy!" Seth said, looking up into the sky.

"Okay...now on to Hayden..." said Jeremy. Jeremy pulled up a new window, and went through the digital profile of Hayden.

"One cream-colored tunic, no sleeves, and underneath, a large white shirt, long-sleeved, with a high collar." started Jeremy.

"Yep!" said Hayden, looking down at his torso.

"Three belts, one wrapped around your right arm, and going around your back, another one that crosses your chest, and connects to the other belt on your back, and on your chest, and lastly, one to hold up your pants..."

"Yep...yep..hey!" said Hayden, ticking things off. He didn't like when Jeremy got to the "holding up his pants" part.

"Moving on..." said Jeremy. Hayden wasn't happy, "One pair of cotton pants, brown, high waistband, and calf length." said Jeremy.

"You got it Einstein!" said Hayden, copying the nickname everyone gave Jeremy.

"And finally, a pair of brown, knee-length boots, that go over your pants." said Jeremy as he finished going through Hayden's digital profile.

"Right on the nose..." said Hayden.

Everyone else looked bored as Hayden and Seth went through the run down with Jeremy. Of course, they all realized that they had to do the same thing when they were first introduced to Lyoko. Ulrich wouldn't even have known he could super-sprint without Jeremy's help, and Yumi wouldn't have known about her telekinesis.

"Okay, you both have pretty straight forward weapons you two." said Jeremy, scrolling down in their digital profile, "Hayden, you have one pistol, attached to the belt around your chest, and clips to reload it on the belt around your waist." said Jeremy.

Hayden pulled out his pistol. He already knew how to work it, but he was glad Jeremy was able to tell him that is was indeed, just a pistol. Hayden aimed for a couple of targets that Jeremy created, and was able to hit the mark each time he fired. Jeremy erased the targets, and then moved on to Seth.

"Seth...you have one rifle, attached to you at the back with a strap, and clips to reload it on your belt as well. You aim by looking at something, then squinting until it comes into focus enough for you to aim the rifle. When you do aim it, cross-hairs will appear and help you aim the rifle."

This time, Jeremy created targets farther away from the group, to give Seth a chance to experience the full range of his rifle. Seth pulled his rifle off his back, loaded it, and then aimed for the farthest target. Seth squinted off into the distance, and saw the target. He squinted, and then the target seemed to zoom towards his eyes. With the target in sight, Seth lined up a shot with the middle of the bulls-eye Jeremy created. The cross-hairs slowly faded into view as he lined up his shot. Seth got down on one knee to steady himself, then pulled the trigger...The shot flew clear across the desert platform, and hit the dead center of the target, shattering the virtual target upon impact. Suddenly, everyone cheered. Seth looked back, and realized that everyone was watching him as he went to take his shot.

"Nice shot man...you could give Odd a run for his money..." said Ulrich. Odd was not impressed.

"Okay, now that you guys are done wasting time, I'm ready to move on to your other weapons..." said Jeremy impatiently. Everyone grew quiet, and waited for Jeremy to speak, "Hayden, you also have two small blades, on your wrists, just over your hands, when you clench your fists..." said Jeremy

"...yeah Einstein...I got it...when I clench my fists, the blades come out..." said Hayden, interrupting Jeremy.

"Just be sure..." said Jeremy, trying to warn Hayden.

"Just be sure to watch your hands before you do so..." said Hayden, predicting what Jeremy was going to say.

Hayden angled his hands a bit, then clenched his fists and the blades popped out with a small "shing!"

"Hey, you got a blade Ulrich, come at me!" said Hayden, putting up his wrist blades to challenge Ulrich.

"Umm, guys...I don't think that this is a good idea..." said Jeremy.

"Relax Einstein, we'll go easy on each other..." said Ulrich, drawing his saber, "Or at least...I'll go easy on _you."_ said Ulrich, looking at Hayden.

"You wish..." said Hayden, sizing up Ulrich.

Ulrich rushed across the sand and took a swing at Hayden. Hayden gasped at his speed, and barely swung his arm up to meet the blade, before it came down on his head. The two blades met with a resounding "ting!" and Ulrich danced away from Hayden to try and get another move. Hayden and Ulrich circled around each other, both waiting for the other to move. Ulrich took the first move, and rushed to close the distance between him and Hayden. Hayden danced out-of-the-way as Ulrich went to lunge for his midsection, Hayden used his blades to push the saber out-of-the-way, then gave Ulrich a tap on the head as he ran by.

"That was just a warning...!" said Hayden as Ulrich slid to a stop.

"And that was me just warming up!" said Ulrich, losing his temper.

Ulrich turned and rushed at Hayden, and swung and hacked as hard as he could, trying to get a piece of Hayden. Hayden was just too fast though, every time Ulrich swung, Hayden was already there, ready to block the attack with his blades, or to cause Ulrich to swerve off by using his blades to angle Ulrich's attacks away from himself. Even though Hayden was faster, it didn't stop him from retreating from Ulrich under the amount of blows Ulrich was pounding against him. Hayden backed up against a rock, still trying to deflect the heavy blows Ulrich was pounding him with. Ulrich thought he finally had the advantage, and raised his saber above his head, ready to come down on Hayden's head.

Hayden ducked at the last second, crouching down and crossing his blades so that when Ulrich came down, his saber got caught in the crossed blades Hayden had above his head. Hayden took advantage of Ulrich's surprise, and moved his blades down to the hilt of Ulrich's saber. Once he had crossed the blades again, he wrenched the blade out of Ulrich's hand and threw it across the platform, where it buried itself in the sand. Ulrich was flabbergasted, and tried running after where his saber landed. With his back turned, Hayden took another advantage, and jumped on Ulrich's back, throwing his weight into Ulrich's knees and back so that he would fall. Ulrich fell and everyone gave an involuntary "ooh..." as Ulrich slid across the sand with Hayden on his back. Ulrich came within inches of grabbing his blade from the sand, but came up just short. Once he came to stop, he felt the tip of Hayden's wrist blade touch the back of his neck.

"Dead..." said Hayden simply, and he got off Ulrich's back.

Ulrich collapsed in the sand and said something like "lucky hit". Hayden stood up and unclenched his fists so that the blades would disappear back into his wrists. Ulrich turned around to face Hayden, and Hayden bent down to help Ulrich up. Ulrich growled and stood up on his own and removed his saber from the sand and slammed it back into its sheath. Everyone was cheering again, even Yumi. She had never been able to beat Ulrich like that on Lyoko. In the real life was a different story, and she was able to beat his butt in Pencak Silat class. But she had never seen such a display. Hayden walked back to join the group, and Ulrich sulked back.

"Are we done?" asked Jeremy's voice from the sky, "Because I'm not done here!"

"Really? Do I have blades like Hayden?" asked Seth, clenching his fists to try and find out.

A blade _did_ pop out of Seth's wrist, but not like Hayden's. Seth's came out of the _side _of his hand, just below the knuckle of each of his pinkies. The thin blades curved out, and then curved back in just below Seth's wrist. It was like the deux claw of a cat. The inside edge of the blade, the part that ran near his wrist, was dull, but the outside edge was razor-sharp. Seth gave a few hook punches in the air, and loved the sound of the blade as it sliced through the air.

"I was just about to get around to that..." said Jeremy, upset that Seth had gone ahead of him.

"Anyone for a duel? Ulrich?" asked Seth, noticing his grim look as he leaned up against a rock with his arms folded.

"No way, not after the fight I just had with "Mr. Slice and Dice" over there..." Ulrich said, pointing to Hayden who was standing next to Seth, admiring the shine of Seth's blades.

"I'll have a go..." said Odd, "I may have arrows, but I also have claws, they might be a match for your blades." said Odd, letting the claws on his paws extend so that he could fight with them.

"We're wasting time guys!" said Jeremy's voice.

"Don't worry Einstein, I'll beat this guy in no time flat..." said Odd, circling around Seth.

Everyone backed up so that Odd and Seth would have room to fight. The two opponents circled around like Ulrich and Hayden had done earlier. Odd ran on all fours up to Seth, and then jumped up to try and pin Seth down. Odd was hoping for a quick win, but Seth raised his hand in front of his face, and instead of grabbing Seth's face, Odd grabbed his blade instead. The blade sliced into Odd's paw, and Odd jumped back in pain.

"Hey! Not fair!" said Odd, looking at the slice in his paw.

"What's the matter pussycat? Your claws no match for my blades like you thought?" said Seth, taunting Odd.

Odd growled and ran back, this time on two feet, punching and jabbing as hard as he could. Seth blocked with his blades, and Odd had to angle his paws so that he didn't slice himself on the razor-sharp edges of the blades. Seth saw a move and he went for it. When Odd went to jab for his abdomen, Hayden pushed Odd's paw out-of-the-way. He then grabbed hold of Odd's paw, and tucked it under his armpit. With one arm trapped, Seth moved fast. He kicked a foot under Odd's feet, sweeping them out from underneath him. Odd landed heavily on his back, and then he felt a blade pushed up across his neck. Seth had one fist above Odd's throat, ready to slice from one end to the other. Odd gulped, and he could feel his Adam's apple go around the blade as it sat there.

"Dead..." said Seth. Seth retracted his blades back into his hands, and then helped Odd back to his feet.

Everyone cheered again, and then it was Odd's turn to be disappointed.

Even Ulrich had to laugh at how embarrassing Odd looked, "You're right Odd, he had you beat in no time flat!"

"Where did you guys learn how to do that?" asked Yumi, still in disbelief over what she saw.

"The gang would have the occasional knife fight to see who was best. The youngest, and the best always had to fight each other when a knife fight was called. The rules were simple, no killing your opponent, and either, learn fast, or learn how to treat knife wounds." said Hayden, feeling up his arms where he could still feel some of the scars.

"I learned quickly, and soon became the best...and the youngest. And after that, no one wanted to go up against me, and they held their fights when I wasn't there." said Hayden.

"I just picked it up from him..." said Seth, and everyone laughed, everyone but Ulrich and Odd.

"No wonder your dad didn't want you hanging around them..." said Ulrich, slipping back into a foul mood.

"_Now_ are we done?" asked Jeremy's voice.

"Yes Jeremy, you can go on now." said Aelita.

"Okay, now you guys have an extra bit of equipment, and Hayden, I think you already know what this is." said Jeremy, "You both have grappling hooks that you can use however you see fit, but be careful, you only have six times you can fire them, every time you come to Lyoko." said Jeremy with a word of warning, "In order to use the grappling hooks, you must flick your wrists." said Jeremy.

"Is that all?!" asked Seth. He flicked his wrist, and a small, angled box came out of it, the width of his arm, and about the size of a ring box. Hayden did the same. The launchers didn't look like much.

"What now Jeremy?" asked Hayden, "These don't seem to be doing much..."

"You have to visualize it..." said Jeremy's voice.

Hayden and Seth both visualized a grappling hook, and a small, silvery cylinder popped out of the launchers. The cylinders sprouted prongs, and then they fired off. Hayden and Seth weren't careful though, and the grappling hooks wrapped up the other. Hayden tripped over Seth's rope, and Seth couldn't talk.

"Umm...Jeremy, a little help?" asked Hayden.

"Oh...right...the launchers should have buttons you can push that will retract the rope, or you can flick your wrist again, and the thing will disappear."

Hayden flicked his wrist, and Seth spun around like a top as the rope was unwound from around his face. Seth flicked his wrist, and Hayden spun around in the dirt as Seth's rope uncoiled itself from around his feet. With both launcher put away, Seth and Hayden were ready for Jeremy to tell them what their powers were. Odd was disappointed however, it was always at this time that he felt depressed that he didn't have as nearly as much powers as the rest of his friends did. Ulrich had his speed, and Yumi had telekinesis, and even Aelita had a power. Odd kept his mouth closed though, he knew what the others would say if he brought it up.

"Hayden, you can turn invisible, and Seth, you can be intangible, meaning you can go through walls, you guys can also project your powers so that you can affect things around you. And I believe you two already know how to use these powers." said Jeremy, reading through their digital profiles.

Hayden and Seth spent a good five minutes messing around with their powers. Hayden turned invisible and had a great deal of fun sneaking up to people and scaring them, much to everyone's displeasure. And Seth had fun running through all the rocks on the platform, acting like an idiot. Finally Jeremy's voice came from the sky, as he cleared his throat.

"Are you two finished?" asked Jeremy, and Hayden and Seth agreed.

"Now here's something I haven't seen before...you guys share a power, based on which sector you guys are in." said Jeremy.

"What? So you're saying, based on where we are, depends on whether we can use that power?" asked Seth.

"That's about right...Seth, you have the ability to control fire and earth when you are in the Desert and Mountain Sectors respectively. And Hayden can control water and ice when in the Polar Region, and air when in the Forest Sector."

Excited, Seth punched in the air, and visualized fire, and a jet of fire came roaring out of his fist, and into the air. Seth giggled as he heard the air sizzle when he fired another jet of fire into the air.

"How come they get all the good powers?" said Odd finally, having enough of Hayden and Seth showing off.

"It's all based on their psychological and physical condition when they were scanned..." said Jeremy's voice.

"That's right Odd, I was tied up in a sheet..." said Hayden, "Which is probably where our grappling hooks came from, and my invisibility, and Seth's intangibility.

"One of the boys spit in his face, kicked dirt in my eyes, and left me a lighter, which is probably where we got our powers to control the elements of the sectors." said Seth.

"And I had a bullet in each hand, and someone threatened me with a switchblade, which is why we probably both have guns for weapons, and blades in our wrists and hands..." said Hayden, "They were on our minds when we got transferred to Lyoko."

"Then what's with the costumes?" asked Ulrich

"I had just been chased by the gang after playing Dungeon Masters Three..." said Hayden, "These are kind of like outfits from the game..." he said.

"I thought they looked familiar!" said Odd, snapping his fingers.

"Are we done talking? Because I wanted to get around to the vehicles before we have to report for Mrs. Hertz's science excursion..." said Jeremy.

"Yeah, go ahead Jeremy." said Yumi.

After a little fiddling on the supercomputer, Jeremy had their vehicles programmed and virtualized. For them to use. Odd was impressed with a brand new hovering skateboard. Ulrich liked the motorcycle with one wheel, it even had a spot for him to hang his saber so it didn't get in the way when driving. Yumi thought the hovering scooter was cute, and it even had enough room for Aelita to ride on the back. Seth and Hayden were proud of their creation. When their vehicle was virtualized, it was in the form of a boat, with a sail that was folded up for the time being. The boat had a small rocket attached where the rudder would have gone, and the boat was super sleek, but small, and had room for both of them to sit in it. Seth jumped into the back where the control arms were, and Hayden got in the front seat. Odd stepped on his hover skateboard, and the skateboard started to hover a couple inches in the air, and Ulrich vaulted over the back of his single wheeled motorcycle, and slid his saber into the slot at the front, and then revved the engine. Yumi stepped on the scooter, and helped Aelita on after she was steady.

"Race around the platforms?" asked Odd, looking at their brand new vehicles.

"First one to go from here to..." Seth used his telescoping eyes to look around for a suitable track the platforms wrapped all the way around in a circle.

"First vehicle to go from here, make a complete circuit, and return using that ramp..." said Seth pointing to the ramp behind them, "Wins...sound good?"

Everyone agreed. Yumi and Aelita decided not to take part, and instead decided to wave them off to start the race. Yumi piloted her scooter high up in the air, and then Aelita stood up on the back and said,

"On your mark? Get set..." Yumi and Aelita both shouted, "GO!"

Ulrich was off first, revving his engine, he kicked dirt up as he left. Odd and Seth and Hayden coughed as Ulrich left. Odd wasn't about to let Ulrich beat him, and angled his board so that the jet on it could push him away from the starting line. Seth and Hayden weren't too far behind. Using the two, jointed, control arms at the back, Seth used one to control speed, and the other on his other side, to control direction. Seth started the engine and pushed both control arms down as far as they would go. The boat's sail flew open, and the boat took off like a rocket. It wasn't long until they caught up to Ulrich and Odd. Odd was showing off by flipping over the head of Ulrich, back and forth. Ulrich wasn't going to be distracted though, and revved his engine, and left Odd in the dust. Seth passed Odd, and to be funny, Hayden acted as if he was actually rowing the boat, in a slow, even pace. Hayden took a second to stop "rowing" and wave at Odd, and Odd found himself waving back in disbelief. Seth punched a couple of buttons on a control panel, and the rocket on their boat pushed them forward, away from Odd.

Hayden waved as they left Odd, and Odd had to step on his board again to get the jet to push him faster. Odd passed Hayden and Seth and blew a raspberry at them.

"X.A.N.A better watch himself now that we have these!" said Odd, flying away from Hayden and Seth.

"Catch up to them!" said Hayden.

"Well stop rowing and put your head down so you stop being such a _drag_..." said Seth.

Hayden scowled and did as Seth said, putting his head down below the rail. The boat actually flew past Odd and Ulrich as they entered a narrow canyon. Ulrich passed Hayden and Seth, who was passed by Odd. Odd was passed by Ulrich, and then he was passed by Hayden and Seth. Odd passed them one more time, and then was passed and left in the dust by Ulrich, Hayden and Seth.

"Who's in the lead?" asked Hayden, peeking over the rail of their boat.

"If I knew...I would tell you! That last bit of passing and re-passing really threw me for a loop!" said Seth over the wind.

Ulrich tried passing Seth and Hayden, but Seth motioned to Hayden and they both bent down as far as they could, hoping they would glide through the air now with no problem. Ulrich copied them, bending down so that the small windshield on the bike, did its job.

"Hey! No fair...!" said Odd, unable to make himself aerodynamic. He tried bending down and making himself smaller.

It seemed to work for the time being, and Odd passed them all up and was about to win when Jeremy's voice called out from the sky.

"Odd...I didn't have time to perfect the program for trajectory..."

Odd went to far after launching himself off the ramp, and he and his hovering skateboard went crashing into a pillar of rock. Odd jumped off at the last moment and landed on the ground on all fours. Ulrich and Seth and Hayden came next, jumping off the ramp, and landing at about the same time. There was a heated argument, and Yumi shouted at them that it was all a tie. Aelita went to check Odd.

"Are you okay?" asked Aelita.

"Oh yeah...there's still some work to do on the Overboard, Jeremy." said Odd, giving a name to his flying skateboard.

"Maybe it's the rider who needs the work..." said Jeremy's voice.

"What...did you miss a step Odd?" said Ulrich laughing.

"Very funny...I'd like to see you on an Overboard." said Odd.

"I guess surfing's not my thing..." said Ulrich simply.

"Umm...sorry to interrupt your _fascinating _conversation, but it looks like X.A.N.A has spotted you..." said Jeremy's voice, "There's something coming your way!"

Everyone looked around to see where this threat could be coming from.

"Well that's really weird!" said Jeremy's voice in surprise, "I-I can't tell what it is!"

"Hey! What's that?" asked Yumi, as she pointed to a new cloud of dust on the horizon.

The cloud of dust was fast, and coming straight towards them.

"I don't know...but it looks like trouble...big time..." said Ulrich. Seth nodded and hid behind Hayden. Hayden sighed, and pulled Seth out from behind him. Seth was still quivering as Hayden pulled him out into the open.

"I've never seen a monster like that one before, X.A.N.A must have _just _created it." said Aelita.

"In any case, it says that it has more life points than the others!" said Jeremy's voice.

The monster stopped in front of them. It was huge...and had four long jointed arms. Two of the arms seemed covered in metal, and they crashed every time it walked. The "head" looked around at the group, and then it knelt on one of its back legs, holding the other two out like Gatling guns. It's thick chest seemed armored, and there was probably nothing that the group had that would penetrate that armor.

"Jeremy...! How about reprogramming our vehicles?" asked Yumi.

"I'm on it already...but it's going to take time..." said Jeremy, working fast.

Aelita took off, and Seth went her to give an escort.

"On my mark..." said Ulrich, pushing his saber slightly out of its sheath.

"I'll go first..." said Yumi

"And I'll keep it busy..." said Odd.

"And I guess I'll offer support!" said Hayden, pulling out his pistol.

"Now!" said Ulrich, pulling out his saber.

The monster fired at Ulrich as fast as a machine gun, and it took all Ulrich's speed to try and block the bolts. Yumi took advantage of the monster's distraction to jump over the head of the large beast, and try and attack it with her fans from behind. The monster turned and shot the fan out of the air like it was nothing. Hayden didn't know what else to do, and fired his pistol as fast as he could into the monster. Each bullet hit somewhere on the monster, but didn't do much in the way of killing it.

"Aelita...there's a deactivated tower not far from you, direction..North by Northwest to your position... Get out of there and come and meet me, but hurry up!" said Jeremy, talking to Aelita and Seth as they ran.

Seth led Aelita to the tower just as Ulrich was devirtualized. Jeremy called up their vehicles, and Yumi, Odd and Hayden each jumped into their vehicles as they appeared. Hayden took off to get Seth, and Yumi and Odd tried keeping their new friend busy. Hayden pulled up next to Seth.

"Need a ride?" he asked, slapping the side of their boat.

"Shut up and get in the back...from the look of it, Yumi and Odd could use our new secret weapon." said Seth, pushing Hayden on a small platform on the back of the boat.

It was true, Yumi and Odd were not doing any better than they were a few seconds ago. Odd tried dive bombing the new monster, firing laser arrows as he fell. Hayden got dizzy just from looking at him. Yumi tried next, but only got her vehicle devirtualized, and herself as well. Odd tried one more time to kill the monster, going for a frontal assault instead. The monster took aim, and knocked Odd right off his Overboard, devirtualizing him. Hayden and Seth screamed as they neared the monster. Some part as a battle cry, and another part in fear. Seth shouted at Hayden about their secret weapon, and he stepped on a small button on the floor of the platform, and a large Gatling gun came out of a hole in the floor. Hayden grabbed hold of the gun and started firing. Seth bobbed and weaved, trying to avoid being shot by the monster.

"Hold still!" Hayden shouted over the clanging of the gun.

"Shoot better!" said Seth, trying to avoid another barrage of shots.

The monster was too good, and too armored to succumb to the fire of the gun. Instead, it fired at their boat, devirtualizing it. Hayden and Seth screamed as they plummeted to the ground. The monster took aim one more time, and shot Hayden and Seth out of the air.

Next Chapter: "Not Everything as it Seems..."

* * *

Okay...I'm going to have to cut it there...when I thought about adding Seth and Hayden to the Code Lyoko story, I never expected it to take this long...it's just...things are so descriptive and colorful on Lyoko. I wanted to take some time to explain Seth and Hayden's true powers on Lyoko, and the vehicle scene took up more pages than I thought it would. In the future, I might split up chapters more and more often depending on how much in an episode that you guys suggest. *UPDATE* Chapter 13 is now posted!


	13. Not Everything as it Seems

I don't really think this chapter needs an explanation...

**Setting: Nature Excursion/ Lyoko**

**Time: Later that Morning**

Chapter 13: "Not Everything as it Seems..."

* * *

Back in the factory, everyone gathered around the hub in the center of the lab. Odd was standing in front of the screen, going over the footage Jeremy took of them fighting the new monster.

"Well anyway, Einstein...one thing is for sure, you're going to have to program our vehicles faster...otherwise we don't stand a chance against those _Tarantulas!" _said Odd, making his hand act like a spider.

"Your Aunt...what?" asked Yumi.

"Tarantulas...the new monsters...I like to give my enemies a name..." said Odd.

Jeremy was afraid that X.A.N.A was still growing in power and evolving. Hayden and Seth weren't used to all the talk about X.A.N.A, and it worried them a bit. Aelita offered to return to her duties on Lyoko as guardian. Jeremy stopped her.

"Should we tell her?" asked Jeremy, calling together a huddle.

"Is it ready?" asked Ulrich.

"We helped Jeremy put the finishing touches on it last night...it should be ready for anything..." said Hayden.

"But is her room ready?" asked Yumi, peeking over Jeremy to look at Aelita.

"Yeah...it was a breeze after I faked the forms for her enrollment. Let's hope Delmas doesn't take a break from his computer games long enough to check the real credibility of those forms I sent him..." said Jeremy.

"I told Jim that she was my cousin from Canada...everyone got that?" said Odd.

"What are you guys going on about?" asked Aelita, finally getting curious.

"Let's tell her..." said Yumi getting anxious, "Why keep good news like that a secret?" said Yumi, breaking up the huddle.

"Keep what a secret?" asked Aelita, "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Over the past few weeks, I've been swamped with the amount of work I needed to do, designing an anti-virus for you, and programming the new vehicles. Hayden and Seth have been very helpful in that process." said Jeremy, launching into one of his long-winded explanations, "They might not be good at the calculations the programs need, but they've been almost indispensable when it comes to actually programming them. And so with the extra time, I've also been working on something new that will warn us when X.A.N.A is on the attack."

"A kind of 'super-scanner' if you will. Much more accurate than the old one..." said Odd.

"And with it you won't have to spend all your time on Lyoko." said Jeremy.

"So I'm going to live..." said Aelita breathlessly.

"Here...with us..." said Ulrich, "We already enrolled you as a boarder at the school..." Aelita gasped, she couldn't believe the generosity of her friends.

"Everything's all set up..." said Yumi, "We wanted to surprise you..."

"I-Th-This is so wonderful!" said Aelita, "I can't believe it!"

"Ooh...right! Seth, we were supposed to talk to Delmas about this!" said Hayden, giving Seth a punch on the arm, "We may just be the boy's dorm monitors, but he also put us in charge of new room assignments, if there were going to be any." Hayden punched Seth again, and Seth rubbed his arm.

"We have to make sure that your room is ready for you to move into." said Hayden, looking at Aelita.

"Gotta go! We'll catch up later!" said Seth as he and Hayden left the group. After Hayden and Seth left, the group gathered their things, and left for the school. The group laughed and joked as they took their scooters and skateboards back to the secret passage to the park.

"It's only 9 AM, we still have three hours until Mrs. Hertz's science excursion, and all other classes are canceled for the day." said Ulrich, looking at his cell phone for the time. The group walked back to the main gate, and Hayden and Seth ran up to them.

"Everything's in order, we made sure that you got a room with a view..." said Seth.

"Don't say it like that...it makes it sound dirty..." said Hayden to Seth, "All Seth means is that we got you a room that overlooks the 'better' part of the courtyards." he said, looking at Aelita and the worried look she had on her face.

"Do you have everything you need?" asked Seth, looking at Aelita's empty arms.

"I have a few things at Yumi's, but other than a couple changes of clothes and a toothbrush, not much else...no." said Aelita.

"Here's a list of recommended things for the average student." said Hayden, pulling a piece of paper out of his brown messenger bag he had slung over one shoulder, "Now it's only recommended, but a few things that you will need." said Hayden, handing Aelita the list.

"There are definitely a few things I wish I had..." said Aelita, looking down the list, "But how will I pay for all this?" she asked, looking at the group who lived at the school.

"Don't worry, all students are issued a monthly allowance, it helps pay for things that a student might need in town, and even helps with books and supplies." said Jeremy, "I have yours here, there's a bit more on it for the first month so you can buy the necessities before semester starts." said Jeremy, pulling Aelita's card out of his pocket and handing it to her.

"You know what that means Aelita?" asked Yumi. Aelita shook her head, "It means we get to go shopping! Just us girls...that is...unless you guys need anything while we're gone?" she said, looking at all the guys.

"You guys go ahead by yourselves..." said Odd, "I don't need to get roped into all that girly stuff..."

"I could stand to go...I need to pick up a new book I had my eye on." said Ulrich, "But you guys can go and do your thing...I just need to stop by the bookstore..." said Ulrich.

"Seth needs some new clothes..." said Hayden, "He's been borrowing from me...and not returning a lot of them." said Hayden, looking at the outfit Seth had on.

"I ordered some new parts for my computer." said Jeremy, "I can probably just go with Ulrich and pick them up since the computer store is not far from the bookstore."

"Then it's agreed, we'll all go to the stores..." said Yumi, grabbing Odd as he tried walking away. Odd complained, but then grew quiet when Yumi mentioned the food court not too far from the shops they were all going to.

Once they reached the shops, Jeremy looked at his watch, "Okay, we have about two hours until we have to be back for Mrs. Hertz's class."

"That will be plenty of time..." said Yumi, dragging Aelita off towards the clothing section to look for cute, new clothes.

Hayden and Seth followed after them to look for clothes for Seth, and Jeremy and Ulrich went off to pick up the things they needed. Odd walked to the food court and looked around. It wasn't often that he was able to come here. After buying comic books, new music, and things for Kiwi, he didn't have a lot of money left at the end of the month. Thankfully, Odd had just gotten a package from home, and his mom had sent him the things he would need for Kiwi that month, and his dad had even slipped in a couple new comic books to the package when his mom wasn't looking. So Odd felt he was set for the month, and headed wherever his nose led him.

Jeremy and Ulrich walked together through the shops, talking as they went. They didn't have much to talk about, and so their topics were soon depleted, and instead, the conversation turned to girls unfortunately. Ulrich didn't want to talk about the girls he liked, and so Jeremy tried guessing. He knew how Ulrich felt about Yumi, he just wanted to mess with Ulrich.

"Claire?"

"No...too snobby, plus after Odd went out with her, she wants nothing to do with me." said Ulrich.

"Emily?"

"You know how she feels about me...we're just good friends..." said Ulrich, quoting the words he used so often talking about Yumi.

"What about Millie?" asked Jeremy coyly

"Millie...Millie Solovieff? She's two years younger than me..." said Ulrich.

"You went to the dance with her once...and besides...Yumi's a year older than you..." said Jeremy.

"I-But-I...So?!" asked Ulrich, his face getting red as he blushed.

"I'm just pulling your leg Ulrich, you don't have to tell me who you like if you don't want to..." said Jeremy

"Oh yeah...and what about Aelita?" asked Ulrich, not wanting to leave the topic alone.

"Umm...Aelita and I are..." said Jeremy, blushing and stammering.

"Just good friends?" asked Ulrich.

Jeremy conceded to Ulrich, and they both agreed that they would never talk about the subject ever again.

Aelita and Yumi were having a conversation around the same lines as they looked at new clothes for Aelita. Aelita preferred to find clothes that matched her unique style of hair color, and Yumi had no problem helping her pick out some outfits that met the criteria. In between looking for clothes, and having Aelita try them on, they talked about boys. They both knew that the other liked a certain boy, but Yumi was curious about the boys that Aelita liked, and Aelita was curious if Yumi liked any of the other boys at school.

"Theo?" asked Yumi.

"I've met him, but he seemed more interested in Sissi than anyone else. Do you like Theo?" said Aelita from inside a changing room.

"No...like you said, ever since he's been here, he's been mad about Sissi. What about Herb?" asked Yumi.

"Herb Pichon? The one with glasses in Sissi's group? Doesn't he like Sissi too?" asked Aelita, stepping out to model her new outfit. Yumi liked it, and Aelita stepped back into the changing room to try on another.

"All the boys at the school seem to like Sissi for some reason..." said Yumi

"And the only boy who Sissi likes..." said Aelita.

"...is Ulrich..." said the both of them at the same time.

"What do you think about Ulrich?" asked Aelita, trying to be sly.

"I...I...Ulrich and I are just good friends..." said Yumi finally.

"_Gee...where have I heard that before?"_ thought Aelita. Yumi wanted to get back at Aelita, and so she asked her,

"What about you and Jeremy?" Aelita gasped and slipped in surprise as she went to put on a pair of pink colored jeans.

"That's all I need to know..." said Yumi under her breath.

After a conversation like that, both Yumi and Aelita both agreed that it would be better to never bring it up again.

Hayden and Seth were in the other part of the same store, looking for new clothes for Seth. Seth liked everything Hayden did, and that didn't surprise Hayden at all. What did surprise him is when Seth suggested that he get different colored clothes so that the rest of the group would be able to tell them apart. So far, everyone had looked at their noses. After Seth had bashed his nose in with their dad's award that was stolen, everyone had tried to decide who they were by looking at their noses. But after a while, the nose trick wasn't working. Hayden's nose was healing, and it wasn't as crooked as it was before. So Seth suggested they both get different colored clothes so that everyone could tell them apart. As Seth and Hayden tried on their new clothes, they went and showed them to each other. Seth and Hayden didn't have trouble telling the other how it looked, because each time they looked, it was like looking into a mirror. Seth's mind wandered as he tried on clothes. He thought back to the nightmares he had had. Seth tried talking to Hayden about them.

"Hayden...?" asked Seth from between the changing rooms they had.

"Yes Seth?" replied Hayden.

"After the old gang was arrested...did you start...having nightmares?"

"Nightmares? No...I've slept better actually now that I know that most of them are going away for a long time, with no chance for parole." said Hayden.

He had been called in a couple of times already to testify in court since he had most of the evidence the court would need to send his old gang to jail. Most of the gang members had also sold out Brock and kept quiet about the holes in Hayden's story in exchange for lighter sentences. Brock was facing up to a life in prison, and he had almost no chance of getting parole. The other gang members however, were still facing some serious charges, and could face most of their adult lives in prison. Hayden had breathed easier, knowing that there was probably no way that he or Seth were going to be found. He was glad to have found such fast friends, and become a brother as well. He felt very protective of Seth. He may look just like Hayden, but Hayden felt just like an older brother. So, that Seth had brought up nightmares, made him wonder if he was having them.

"Are you having nightmares Seth?" asked Hayden from the other changing room.

"Umm...no...I was just wondering...it was a...scarring experience, I just wanted to make sure you were still okay..." Seth lied through his teeth.

"Okay...umm...thanks for asking..." said Hayden from the other changing room.

He could tell that Seth was lying about something, otherwise he wouldn't have brought it up. Hayden wasn't sure _what_ he was lying about, but he was going to find out. After all the purchases had been made, and everything was paid for, everyone gathered together at the front of the shops to show off their various purchases. Aelita showed off her new outfit. She wore a maroon jumper over a pink shirt and jacket with pink, fur-lined boots. Aelita gave a couple turns to show off, and she asked what Jeremy thought about it. Jeremy just blushed, and everyone stifled a giggle. Hayden and Seth both showed off their new clothes, Hayden wore a red jacket with a zipper, underneath it he wore a black t-shirt with a video game logo on it, he also wore a pair of light blue jeans. Seth wore almost the same thing, but he wore a black jacket instead of a red, a white t-shirt, instead of black, but with the same video game logo on it, and a pair of darker blue jeans. The group didn't have a hard time determining who was who now. Hayden said that he would always wear the lighter colored clothes, and Seth said he would wear the darker.

Yumi saw Ulrich holding a book in his hand, and pressured him into showing them what it was. At first, Ulrich refused, but after a while, he caved and showed them an all new journal, this time with a sturdy lock.

"It's Sissi proof..." he said, mentioning the time that Sissi stole his old journal.

Everyone laughed and Ulrich leaned in towards Yumi and whispered something in her ear. Yumi blushed and Ulrich blushed too. Jeremy showed everyone the new parts he had for his computer, but when he tried to explain it, only Hayden and Seth and Aelita were interested in what he had to say. Odd came up with someone and interrupted Jeremy as he was talking.

"Boring everyone again with your computer talk...eh Einstein?" said Odd. The girl he was with giggled, and he whispered something in her ear. The girl chuckled and Odd introduced her to the rest of the group.

"You guys remember Sam right?" he said, and Sam waved at Ulrich, Yumi, and Jeremy. When she got around to Hayden and Seth and Aelita, she stopped.

"Hello...you guys are new..." she said, taken aback.

"Hi, I'm Hayden, and he's Seth..." said Hayden, sticking out his hand. Sam grabbed it hesitantly and leaned back to Odd and whispered, "How do you tell them apart?"

Hayden leaned in and whispered back, "Look at the nose..." Sam was confused now. Hayden and Seth laughed, and Hayden took the time to explain their identities in respect to the clothes they were wearing.

"Hey! You guys are cool, do you guys skateboard?" she asked.

"No, we do parkour..." said Hayden and Seth at the same time.

"Hardcore guys! Rock on!" she gave a fist bump to both Hayden and Seth.

"And you must be Aelita, Odd's cousin from Canada...Odd has so much to say about you!" Sam said, looking at Aelita.

"Yeah...eh?" said Aelita weakly. She hadn't been told her whole identity yet and tried faking it when put on the spot by Sam.

"She doesn't talk much does she?" Sam whispered to Odd.

"No, she's just shy..." whispered Odd back.

"I ran into her when I was at the food court. Sam has the day off since her school doesn't start for another week." said Odd, trying to explain why she was there to the confused faces of Jeremy, Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi.

Jeremy looked down at his watch and said, "Well, we have about 45 minutes until Mrs. Hertz's nature excursion, we should get back so that Aelita has time to get settled, and everyone else has time to put their things away too." Everyone else rolled their eyes at Einstein's clearly biased goals, and Aelita blushed again when she heard Jeremy talk about her.

Odd bid farewell to Sam from behind one of the fake trees near the entrance. When he came back, he had lipstick on his cheek, and Ulrich took great pleasure of making fun of it until Odd realized it was there and wiped it off with his sleeve. After he was done teasing Odd, Ulrich seemed to spend a lot of time on the walk back, talking to Yumi. Yumi however didn't talk back, her mind seemed to be on something else. Ulrich could tell something was bothering her, so he left her alone. Yumi had run into William while she was helping Aelita pick out clothes. He seemed so lonely about being at a new school, that she offered to be his partner later on the science outing. Yumi thought about Ulrich, and how he might be crushed if he learned she was going with William, and not him. So she decided not to tell him.

After they got back to the school, Hayden and Seth ran to get Jim, and he helped show Aelita to her new room. After Jim gave Aelita the tour of her room, Jeremy and the others left her to get settled on her own, and they all left to meet Mrs. Hertz before the science trip, so they could set up their partners before the trip. Jeremy paired himself up with Aelita, and no one was shocked when he did. Mrs. Hertz handed him a digital camera and a sketch pad, and he walked off near the dorms to wait for Aelita. Seth and Hayden paired themselves up, and Mrs. Hertz took the time to introduce herself to the boys.

"You must be new here." she said, writing something on her clipboard, "I'm Mrs. Hertz, the science and physics instructor here at Kadic." she said as she handed a digital camera to Seth, and a sketch pad to Hayden.

"I see you are good friends with Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama, and Odd Della Robbia, and Jeremy Belpois. I hope you two can be a good example! If I had to name the amount of times I caught them trying to sneak away from my classes, I'd lose count. So I better not catch you doing the same!" warned Mrs. Hertz, and Hayden and Seth nodded curtly. They looked at each other as they walked away, and knew there was no way they were following that rule.

Another boy was next in line, and he whispered into Mrs. Hertz's ear. Mrs. Hertz nodded and then the boy gave a thumbs up to Yumi. Yumi gave a thumbs up back, and he ran off after Mrs. Hertz gave him a camera and sketch pad. Ulrich went up to get the supplies he would need, but held off on telling her who he wanted to work with until he had a chance to speak with her. Ulrich went off to pace by the arches, and talked to himself. Odd went up next, and put Ulrich down as his partner when he realized that Yumi had just been put down with the new boy William. Odd looked over in Ulrich's direction as Yumi walked up to him, and then William walked up to Yumi and she walked off with William, leaving Ulrich depressed. Aelita came downstairs, and she left with Jeremy. Odd went with Ulrich, and Hayden and Seth weren't far behind. Seth and Hayden found themselves behind Sissi and her group as they walked. Sissi took a shortcut, and led her group to the shops instead of the forest. Herb tried talking Sissi into going to the forest instead, but she just told him to keep his mouth shut, and try drawing some of the plants in the florist shop.

"Be sure to draw some ferns!" shouted Hayden after them, and Sissi stormed off with a "humph!" and Herb nodded at Hayden's suggestion. Hayden snickered as he walked with Seth.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

"I know that florist, they only sell flowers native to the Amazon, not the woods of Paris!" Hayden said, cracking up.

"Ooh...you're evil..." said Seth, "Remind me to never get on your bad side..." he said.

Once they reached the forest, everyone split up to find a large enough area to find better plants than everyone else could. Hayden and Seth followed Aelita and Jeremy, and Ulrich and Odd followed after Yumi and William, mostly because of Ulrich. Hayden and Seth took a small turn and bid Aelita and Jeremy farewell as they found a patch of woods they thought would be perfect for them. Hayden got right down to business, while Seth zoomed the camera lens in and out, making ridiculous zooming noises with his mouth.

"Look Hayden, it's like I'm on Lyoko!" said Seth, zooming in on Hayden's face, and then back out. Hayden wasn't impressed, and bent down to start sketching the roots of a nearby tree.

"Didn't you hear me...it's like I'm on..." said Seth, raising his voice. Hayden noticed a new group walk near them, and Hayden quickly cleared his throat to keep Seth from giving away their secret. Seth apologized to the group for startling them, and Hayden rolled his eyes. Hayden stood up from drawing, and shoved the sketch pad into Seth's chest. Seth coughed as he had the wind knocked out of him, and Hayden took the camera.

"You sketch...I'll take pictures..." said Hayden, walking away, leaving Seth standing under a tree.

Hayden was much better at taking pictures than he was at sketching. He snapped as many photos as he could, but then he zoomed in and saw Jeremy and Aelita standing on the path. Jeremy grabbed at his bag, and it looked like he had forgotten something. Aelita waved at Jeremy as he ran off in the direction of the school. Hayden then looked in a different direction. Yumi and William were sitting under a tree, Yumi was snapping pictures from where she sat, and William was drawing a flower at his feet. The two of them were talking, but Hayden wasn't sure what they were saying. But suddenly, William bent over and picked the flower at his feet and gave it to Yumi. Yumi blushed slightly, and Hayden figured there was a lot more on William's mind than just being friends. Hayden could hear a faint growl, and he zoomed out the camera lens and saw Ulrich spying on Yumi and William with his own camera. Odd was sitting on the ground in the shade playing with Kiwi, trying to bring Ulrich's mind back to the project they were working on. Hayden gave a small chuckle and pointed his camera back in the direction of Aelita. She was gone! Hayden's phone rang and he answered it. Hayden looked around as Jeremy talked to him, he tried to see where Aelita had run off to.

"Hayden! X.A.N.A is attacking, get Seth and the others and find Aelita, I left her on the Red Trail."

"I know..." said Hayden

"What?" asked Jeremy.

"I mean...got to go!" said Hayden, ending the call with Jeremy, and running to get Seth.

Seth looked up when Hayden ran back. He was in the middle of drawing a bird's nest, when Hayden came crashing back. The birds took off, and Seth swore as he lost his model.

"X.A.N.A's attacking and I can't find Aelita..." said Hayden, out of breath.

"Well, where did you see her last?" asked Seth.

"On the Red Trail..." said Hayden.

"Well, let's go!" said Seth, grabbing Hayden's arm and running with him.

As they ran down the path, they ran into Ulrich and Odd, literally. Hayden knocked Odd over, and Seth knocked Ulrich over in their haste to find Aelita.

"Hey! What's the big rush fellas?" asked Odd, extricating himself out from underneath Hayden.

"Jeremy called about a X.A.N.A attack, and we can't find Aelita..." said Seth, helping Ulrich up.

"We know, we were trying to find Aelita as well..." said Ulrich, brushing dirt off of his shirt.

Odd's dog Kiwi found something in the dirt and was sniffing around it, he then took off in a different direction. Hayden bent down and realized it was Aelita and Jeremy's sketch pad.

"She must have dropped it when she went this way." said Seth when Hayden showed it to him.

Everyone chased after Kiwi, and they were soon joined by Yumi. Ulrich was a bit jumpy however, and almost kicked Yumi as she snuck up behind him. Yumi brushed it off, but Ulrich seemed distracted still. Kiwi led them to an old, run down house.

"The Hermitage..." said Odd reading the worn sign.

"Looks old..." said Ulrich, noticing the landscape around the house

"Looks _abandoned_..." said Hayden, pointing to the windows that were shattered, and the porch that was sagging under its own weight.

They all heard a scream, "AELITA!" shouted everyone, and they opened the to the house, and ran inside.

There was a layer of dust an inch thick on everything, and Seth sneezed when Odd blew on a small table to clear the dust. Suddenly, a desk from the living room rolled forward, and would have crushed them all if Ulrich and Yumi hadn't pulled Hayden and Seth and Odd out of the way, and into the kitchen. A drawer of knives launched itself across the room, and Odd and Seth pulled Yumi and Ulrich down, just as the knives whizzed by, and buried themselves in the wall where they stood just a second ago. They all walked back into the hall, and a lamp swung at Hayden and Odd. Ulrich cried out to them when he noticed it, and Hayden and Odd were barely able to duck.

"I think X.A.N.A's trying to lead us somewhere..." said Yumi, leading them all down the stairs to the basement.

"Aelita!" said everyone when they noticed her unconscious figure on the ground inside a strange room. Yumi and Ulrich ran to help her up, and Odd stood in the doorway.

"We're going to get you out princess..." said Ulrich heaving Aelita up on his shoulders. Yumi helped balance her, and they both walked slowly towards the door. Aelita stirred and she said,

"It's a trap!" and with that, the large steel door rolled shut. But Odd stopped it with his foot, and was able to let Aelita out before his strength failed, and he was pushed out of the room. A furnace clicked on, and the room started to heat up fast.

"You'll be cooked alive if we leave you in there!" said Odd, trying to pull the door open. Hayden and Seth ran forward and tried to help Odd push the door open, but no dice, X.A.N.A locked the door tight, and there was no way a bunch of kids were getting the heavy door open.

"Odd...take Aelita and get to the factory! Our only chance is if you deactivate the tower!" said Ulrich from the other side of the door.

Odd nodded, and Aelita took his hand and left through another door in the basement. Hayden and Seth stayed behind to try and get the door open. Hayden tried beating on it with a steel bar, and Seth tried prying at the lock with another bar. There was a loud scraping noise, and Hayden and Seth looked as Odd pushed Aelita out of the way of a tall bookshelf, and then vaulted over it. The shelf crashed into the basement door, and the door gave way. Odd shrugged, and he and Aelita left the basement of the house. Seth and Hayden returned to their assault on the door. Hayden's phone rang. He stopped banging on the door to answer it.

"How's everything going?" asked Jeremy.

"Not good...X.A.N.A locked Yumi and Ulrich in a furnace room, and Odd and Aelita are on their way to the factory." said Hayden. Seth tried to kick his bar as he put it in the crack between the door and the wall, and when he did, it snapped off, and Seth's foot went crashing down to the floor with the rest of him as he stumbled and fell to the ground.

"We can't even get the door open!" said Hayden, throwing his bar at the door in defeat.

"Well try harder, if they die, a return to the past won't help them!" said Jeremy over the phone.

"Got it, people die, no bringing them back..." said Hayden, and he hung up the phone. Seth tried grabbing the handle to the door, but he shouted and pulled back as soon as he did. The room was heating up fast, even the door was hot. Hayden and Seth threw themselves down on the floor in exhaustion, they could hear Yumi and Ulrich talking from the other side. Ulrich had already taken his shoes and socks and shirt off, and Yumi was about to take her sweater off.

"Go ahead..." said Ulrich, panting, "I won't look." Yumi turned around and removed her sweater. They sat back to back, and sighed. The banging on the door continued as Hayden tried prying the door open this time, and Seth banged on the door as hard as he could. They could hear Hayden stop Seth, and then he grabbed the handle and shouted as he burned himself on the handle. Seth's voice was muffled, but they heard him say,

"Well didn't you learn your lesson when _I _grabbed the door?" said Seth.

Ulrich shouted at them, "Give it a rest guys, the door is too thick..." he said, "Get to the factory, help Odd and Aelita!"

"No way Ulrich, we're not leaving you guys!" said Seth, "You're not going to die!"

Hayden wasn't so sure, and he called Jeremy.

"Jeremy! How's it going?" asked Hayden.

"Odd and Aelita are up against two...no one Tarantula..." he said as Odd killed one of the Tarantulas, "It's still slow going over here though, how about on your end?"

"Yumi and Ulrich aren't doing so good...the room is boiling, and so are Yumi and Ulrich. I'm afraid if Odd and Aelita don't hurry, we could say goodbye to Ulrich and Yumi..." Hayden tried being quiet with the last part, but Ulrich and Yumi heard him anyway.

"You don't have to sugarcoat it Hayden, get out of here...help Odd!" said Yumi, between gasps.

"We're not leaving you!" said Hayden, "Just tell Odd to step on it..." said Hayden to Jeremy.

Ulrich and Yumi were gasping for air and water, Ulrich started having blurry vision, and he decided he was about to go. Using his last breaths, he asked Yumi a question.

"Yumi...Yumi...what's really going on...between you and...William?" he gasped, and he passed out, hitting the ground with a "thud".

"Ulrich! Ulrich! Get up man!" said Seth, noticing Ulrich collapse through the small window on the door.

"Nothing at all...he's...he's...just a friend..." and then Yumi passed out as well.

"Yumi!" said Hayden, clambering to get a view through the small window.

The room was unbearable now, and the small dial near the door cracked as it reached the end of the spectrum. Hayden and Seth couldn't stand so close to the door now, as it started to radiate heat. Hayden and Seth looked outside as a bright white light engulfed everything. Hayden and Seth gave each other high-fives, when they saw it, they heard Ulrich and Yumi, still gasping for air, and they knew everything was going to be okay.

The day rewound, and Hayden and Seth got in line behind Sissi as she handed in her nature sketches to Mrs. Hertz. Even in this time line, Sissi had decided to skip the trip, and instead went to the shops. Mrs. Hertz was not pleased as Sissi handed in a sketch of an Amazonian Yucca. Hayden and Seth sniggered as Mrs. Hertz gave her group a zero, and she stormed off in a huff. Herb blew a raspberry as Hayden, and Hayden just smirked.

"You know...I thought I liked Sissi...until she opened her mouth..." said Seth, and Hayden laughed.

After their work was graded, they ran off to join Jeremy and the others. Yumi was just saying goodbye to William, and Ulrich was sulking. Jeremy starting going on about the house that the rest of the group had gone into. He said that after the return to the past, the house had gone back to normal, but it was still abandoned. Aelita and Odd talked about the strange happenings in the house. No one could explain them, and everyone just figured it was another mystery to solve. Jeremy pulled out a small present, and handed it to Aelita, she tugged at the wrapping paper. It was a new phone! Jeremy explained it was for getting in contact when X.A.N.A was attacking. Aelita was so excited and hugged Jeremy, she spent most of that night calling, and recalling everyone in the group several times.

Hayden finally bid Aelita good night after she called him for the fourth time that night. He and Seth got ready for bed. Hayden slept fine, but in the middle of the night, he heard Seth struggle and strain. He opened his eyes and looked at Seth as he struggled against his nightmares. In his head, Seth was having the same nightmare he had before. He was in the court room, when he made an accusation against Brock who was on the witness' stand. No words came out, and instead, Brock laughed, and pointed at Seth, who was in his underwear. The jury turned into members of their old gang, and they all laughed as Seth stood there, trying to cover up. The scene changed, and Seth was standing in the courtyards. He saw Hayden walking towards him, and a shot rang out in the night, and Hayden collapsed. Seth felt his heart stop, and he too collapsed to the ground. Seth woke with a start, and looked around. Hayden clenched his eyes closed as Seth looked his way. He didn't want to give himself away. Seth looked at Hayden, then shook his head and went back to sleep.

Hayden slipped out of bed and walked over to Seth. He brushed a small strand of hair out of Seth's face, almost in a motherly fashion. He watched Seth for a little while as he slept. Seth seemed to be fine now, so Hayden walked back to bed and went to sleep. He didn't know what was going on...but he was going to find out...

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Next Chapter: "A Tiring Day"


	14. A Tiring Day

Chapter 14: "A Tiring Day" (Based on the Code Lyoko Episode "Uncharted Territory")

**Setting: Kadic/ Lyoko**

**Time: The Next Day**

* * *

After a long night, Hayden got up early and took a shower in the bathroom he shared and got dressed. After he was finished, he walked back out into his room, and Seth was still asleep on the other bed. Hayden sighed. He knew Seth was probably tired after last night, but it was time for them to do their dorm monitor jobs and make sure all the other boys in the dorms got up on time. Hayden shook Seth awake, and the now wide awake boy bolted up. Seth rubbed his eyes and Hayden pointed to the alarm clock on his nightstand. Seth looked at and sprang out of bed. He hurried, took a quick shower, and was ready in about 8 minutes. Seth yawned and stretched as he walked down the hallway waking up all the boys in on his side of the hall. Herb and Nicolas laughed as they saw Seth after they stuck their heads out of their doors.

"You come to wake us up every morning, but you can't even wake up yourself!" said Herb, laughing at Seth as he shambled down the hall.

"Hey, cut it out Pichon...or I'll make sure that there just so happens to be a long line of people at the shower when you go to take one...you might even miss breakfast because of it..." said Hayden staring down Herb.

"You wouldn't dare..." said Herb, narrowing his eyes at Hayden.

"Try...me..." said Hayden, poking a finger into Herb's chest.

Nicholas called Herb off, and Seth came back to pry Hayden from Herb. Jeremy and Ulrich and Odd were already up, and Jeremy was going on about the abandoned house again. Apparently, all last night, he had looked into anything he could find on the Hermitage. Jeremy didn't have much luck, but what he did find was a deed signed by one- Franz Hopper. Jeremy did a bit more digging and found that Franz Hopper was once a science teacher at Kadic. Odd and Ulrich thought he had something to do with the supercomputer, especially after Odd mentioned the fact the man had a secret passage to the sewers, and thus to the factory. Hayden and Seth stopped Herb when he tried to go in the bathroom, and let Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy and even Nicholas in front of him. Nicholas shrugged, and left Herb behind, much to Herb's displeasure. While Herb was busy shouting at Hayden and Seth for showing favoritism, Aelita went into the boy's bathroom when they weren't looking. There were shouts and Ulrich pushed Aelita out of the bathroom.

"The girl's showers are downstairs Aelita!" said Odd. Then, trouble came along. Jim ran up to Aelita, and he did not look happy.

"Aelita Stones! What do you think you are doing here?!" he shouted at the confused pinkette.

Hayden and Seth turned around, and Herb slipped into the bathroom when they weren't looking. Jim starting going off on Aelita, and she cowered under his booming voice. Ulrich begged Jim to take it easy on Aelita since she was new. Aelita stammered something about Sissi, and Seth and Hayden saw Sissi poke her head around the corner, and it all made sense. They calmed Jim down, and he walked off. Sissi seemed glad to finally have gotten back at their group, and she made fun of Aelita, calling her "Mrs. Einstein". Ulrich tried reasoning with Sissi, but she wouldn't take it. She pointed at Aelita and told her to adapt, otherwise she would be eaten alive in the 'jungle' of the school. Odd couldn't resist a joke.

"You're right! I'm looking at a big baboon now!" said Odd.

Sissi stormed off, and she took Nicholas and Herb with her, who had just walked out of the bathroom. Odd and Ulrich walked back into the showers and shut the door. As the door closed, Odd said something about Sissi, and how Ulrich and her actually kissed once. Hayden and Seth snickered, and Aelita left for the bathrooms downstairs again.

Later at breakfast, Aelita came in and got through the line just as Rosa stopped serving breakfast. Aelita was glad to make it to breakfast, and she sat down as Ulrich, and Odd stood up and emptied their trays. They went to meet up with Yumi who had just walked though the main gate. Jeremy bid farewell to Aelita as well, and went to catch up with Ulrich and Odd. Hayden ran after him since they were talking about something about the supercomputer. Aelita sat down across from Seth, who had barely touched his food. Aelita sat down and started picking at her food too.

"You couldn't sleep either?" said Seth, stifling a yawn.

"What makes you say that?" said Aelita, looking up at Seth.

"It's just- well, you look almost as bad as I do, and I almost didn't sleep a wink..." said Seth, pushing his cold eggs around on his plate.

"Yeah...I had a nightmare, and I can't explain it..." said Aelita, taking a small bite out of her croissant.

"Me too..." said Seth under his breath.

"What?" asked Aelita.

"I mean...my...shoe!" said Seth, lying to Aelita, "My shoe is untied...over there!" Seth quickly stood up and cleared his tray.

Aelita looked and saw Seth's shoe, it wasn't even untied. She felt confused and ate her breakfast anyway. She wasn't very hungry, so Aelita stood up and cleared her tray and joined the others in the courtyards. Jeremy was still going on about Franz Hopper, and he wanted to research more about it. He asked Ulrich, Odd, Hayden and Seth for their help to sneak into the Kadic Academy archives. Aelita offered to help, but Jeremy shot her down. After the stunt Sissi pulled getting Aelita in trouble with Jim, Jeremy didn't think it was a good idea for her to stick her neck out again. Yumi was about to help Seth and Hayden get around to all their classes, but then she noticed Aelita still standing there.

"Are you okay Aelita?" she asked. Aelita gasped as her mind was brought back to the present moment.

"I just can't get used to living here..." she said in a sad tone. "I had another nightmare last night, the same one..." Yumi bent down.

"You haven't even been here more than a couple of days!" said Yumi, trying to cheer Aelita up, "You'll see, you'll feel better in no time."

Aelita gave a small smile, and Yumi, Seth and Hayden all left for their classes. Later, when study period came around, Seth, Hayden, Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy all snuck out of the library, and across campus to the administrative buildings, and into the back hallway where the files were kept. Odd and Ulrich kept guard at the door, and Jeremy tried to open the door. Unfortunately, it was locked.

"Let me try, Einstein," whispered Hayden, and he pulled out a small pouch with lock picking tools in it. After a couple of minutes, Hayden heard a small "click!" and he pushed the door open quietly.

"I thought you said you were done with the old gang," whispered Seth, as Hayden put the tools back in his jacket pocket.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'm done having fun- plus, it's for a good cause," whispered Hayden. Seth rolled his eyes, and Jeremy shushed the both of them. The genius walked up to the file cabinets and pulled on the drawer he needed. It was locked too.

"Give me those!" said Seth, grabbing the pouch of tools from Hayden, and walking up to the file cabinet. Seth took out a couple of the tools, and in almost no time flat, he had the cabinet open.

"Now who's having fun?" asked Hayden. He looked down at his watch and realized that Seth had beaten his time on the door.

"Beginners luck," Hayden said, and Seth smiled as he handed back the pouch of tools.

"'It's for a good cause,'" taunted Seth, and Hayden scowled at him.

Jeremy went through the files to look for 'Hopper', and came across his file in no time. At the front of the file was an employment agreement, and Jeremy compared the signatures to both the deed of the house, and the agreement. The signatures matched. Satisfied with the results, Jeremy put the file back, and Hayden locked the cabinet with his tools. Odd and Ulrich were outside the door, stalling the principal's secretary. Jeremy, Seth, and Hayden snuck out of the room, and Hayden locked the door from the inside, using the lock. Hayden quietly shut the door, and they snuck around the corner. Jeremy walked out first, and talked to the secretary. Hayden and Seth went next, and said that they had ran into Mr. Delmas like they needed to. The five of them walked off, and left the secretary baffled at them.

Aelita had gone to lunch on her own, Ulrich, Odd, Jeremy, and Seth, and Hayden were late getting back from their trip to the archives, so she decided to test herself on how well she could function in normal life. She stared at all the wonderful looking foods, but what she didn't realize she was holding up the lines. The people behind her shouted at her, and she moved down to where Rosa was standing. Rosa asked Aelita what she wanted, and Aelita was so surprised at her enthusiasm, so Aelita smiled back and tried talking to her. But the other people in line were shouting at her again so she moved down the line without answering her.

Jeremy, Ulrich, Odd, Seth and Hayden took a break outside the administrative building to discuss what Jeremy had found. Jeremy confirmed that the teacher's signature, and the signature on the deed were exactly the same. Jeremy suggested that they poke around the Hermitage, and try and find out more.

"But- weren't we supposed to meet Aelita in the cafeteria?" asked Odd.

"It will only take a moment, and besides, she won't mind. Come on!" said Jeremy, running off to the woods.

Back in the cafeteria, Aelita had an empty tray, and an empty stomach. She couldn't see Jeremy and the others anywhere. She saw Yumi, and was about to ask her for help, but she sat down near William, and started talking to him. Aelita now had an empty heart as well, and she walked out of the cafeteria depressed. She ran into Sissi on the way out, who teased Aelita about wanting to return home. Aelita shouted at Sissi about it making sense there, and then stormed off to the park.

It wasn't long until the five boys were standing in the doorway of the abandoned Hermitage.

"Still looks as creepy as ever," said Ulrich, looking around the main hall. "What are we looking for?"

"How should I know?" replied Jeremy. "If this Franz Hopper guy has anything to do with X.A.N.A, maybe we'll find something about Aelita's virus- for a start."

They each split up and took a room. Jeremy found an old office filled with a broken computer, a desk that was missing several drawers, a blackboard, and several scattered pieces of paper with hastily scribbled notes and math problems that had faded under the sunlight. Jeremy went through the books on the far wall. Most of them were physics and math textbooks, but something caught his eye. Ulrich walked in and noticed the book in Jeremy's hand.

"'The Tunic Wars'. What's that about?"

"Punic. Not Tunic," chastised Jeremy, disappointed in Ulrich's reading abilities. "It's about the war between the Romans and the Carthaginians. We studied it last year, don't you remember anything?"

Hayden, Seth and Ulrich all said, "No." Ulrich didn't remember because he had fallen asleep during much of Mr. Fumet's classes. Hayden and Seth said no, mostly because Hayden hadn't studied it before in his old school.

"You really are lame in History," said Odd, and Ulrich wanted to punch him.

Seth grabbed the book out of Jeremy's hands, and started going through it. He was really interested in reading about old things, since he was relatively new to the world. Seth showed the book to Jeremy when he noticed something weird about it.

"You see all these notes?" Seth asked.

"I'm sure Hopper wrote them!" said Jeremy, looking at the handwriting.

Jeremy took the book and they all ran back to school. Hayden and Seth said goodbye to the group, and ran to meet up with Yumi so she could show them where their next class was. Jeremy and the others rushed off to have science class with Mrs. Hertz, and Hayden and Seth ran off to join Yumi in gym class.

The class was at the swimming pool that day, and most of the girls were gawking over Hayden and Seth as they showed off their parkour skills while jumping off the diving boards. Yumi sighed, and she worked on her synchronized swimming skills with a couple of the other girls. Yumi heard her phone ring, but didn't get a chance to answer it. She was upside-down in the water, trying to keep time with the other girls. After she was done, she checked her phone. She had a message from Ulrich. She listened to it, then quickly packed her gym bag, and pulled Hayden and Seth away from the group of girls they were with to get to the factory.

It wasn't long until they were in the lab, talking to Jeremy. Yumi was still drying her hair, and Hayden and Seth were trying to shake water out of their ears.

"What's going on Jeremy?" asked Yumi, pulling the towel away from her still wet hair.

"Get to the scanner room! Ulrich and Odd are already there! Hurry!" Jeremy seemed panicked.

Yumi nodded and pushed the button to go down. Once in the scanner room, Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi all stepped into a scanner tube, and Jeremy started up the virtualization process. The tubes slammed shut, and a couple of minutes later, they popped open so Hayden and Seth could step in. The process started, and Hayden felt his mind ripped from his body again, and his virtual form was created on Lyoko. The newest members of the Lyoko Warriors landed on the ground in the Forest Section. This time around, they landed much more gracefully, and rolled to break their respective falls. Jeremy's voice came from the sky.

"Do you see her?" asked Jeremy's voice.

"Not yet..." said Ulrich.

"She's due north!" Jeremy seemed in a frenzy now.

Ulrich led up the group, and they all set out to find Aelita. The group was still so far behind, so Odd ran up next to Ulrich, and told him to run ahead of all of them. Ulrich went to take off, but the five of them were hemmed in by Krabes. Ulrich called for battle stations, and they all launched into an attack. Odd crouched down and jumped up a tree, dodging laser bolts from one of the Krabes as he climbed up the tree to distract it. Ulrich drew his saber and sliced the Krabe's legs. Yumi threw one of her fans, and caught the Krabe on the head as it fell. The Krabe exploded, and everyone shifted targets to the other Krabe. Odd continued up the tree, distracting the other Krabe. Seth ran up and used his hand blades to slice up the Krabe's joints. The Krabe fell, and Hayden pulled out his pistol and shot the eye pattern on its head.

"Good job guys, but you better hurry, the Bloks have almost caught up to Aelita," said Jeremy's voice from the sky.

"What are you waiting for then?" said Odd, "Call us a taxi!"

Hayden and Seth looked at each other and shouted, "ROAD TRIP!"

Jeremy materialized their vehicles, and they all jumped on their respective ones. Odd took to the skies, and so did Yumi and Seth and Hayden. Ulrich punched a button on the throttle of his Overbike, and his bike soared into the air. They all rushed to the co-ordinates that Jeremy gave them, and Odd was the first to get there. He flipped off his board and looked around.

"She's not even here! Wow, she must really be mad at us," said Odd.

"Now's not the time for jokes Odd, I can't find Aelita on my screens!"

"You mean- she's-" said Yumi, getting nervous.

"No! I doubt it. She's just- disappeared off my screens! As if- wait..." Jeremy typed into the supercomputer furiously, trying to figure out this new mystery, "What's going on?!" he shouted.

Jeremy found something finally, "Got it! I found a signal, but a weak one- but- hey! That's strange... Aelita's not in this sector anymore! She's not in any sector, actually!"

Seth and Hayden were confused. They still hadn't figured out how the sector transfers worked, so they tried listening to Jeremy. Ulrich was confused as well, but he knew how sector transfers worked, so he asked, "Can you explain that a little better?"

"No, not really," Everyone sighed, they relied on Jeremy to be the brains of the operation, and when he couldn't pull through, it made their job all that much harder. "Let's just say she's in a sector that doesn't exist! A fifth Sector!"

"Huh?" asked Odd. That didn't make sense to anyone, including Hayden and Seth, they had only known about four Sectors, and now that there was a fifth, it threw them off. Hayden and Seth sighed in defeat after trying to figure out anything about sector transfers.

"A fifth sector? Have you gone bananas or what?" asked Odd.

"No, if I could just...fix this thing...maybe I-" said Jeremy at a loss for words. A new window popped up on his screen he had never seen before, "Welcome to- Carthage?" he asked, looking at the new window.

Back on Lyoko, Yumi and the others were getting impatient with Jeremy.

"Is this going to take long?" she asked.

"I hope not," he responded as he tried figuring out what the new window was.

Odd noticed some Hornets flying towards them all.

"Uh-oh, now things are really starting to buzz!" he said in a feeble attempt at a joke, and he hopped back on his Overboard.

Yumi hopped back on to her Overwing, and Ulrich back on his Overbike. Seth jumped into the control seat of the Overboat. Hayden jumped up on the platform on the back, and pushed the button on the floor of the platform. Up popped the Gatling gun, and all of them launched into action to give Jeremy time to figure out what was going on with the new program. Odd fired his arrows at a couple, and he hit one, making it explode. Yumi was surrounded by them, so she took out her fans and threw them around herself in a circle to stop them from following her. Ulrich dealt with the hornets on the ground, dodging shots as he drove his motorbike down the forest path. Ulrich drew his saber and launched himself off the seat of his Overbike, and then flew into the air. Ulrich spun around in the air and sliced the Hornet and landed back on his Overbike. Seth flew Hayden around, mopping up what was left of the Hornets with their Gatling gun.

"Jeremy, what are we doing?" Ulrich said, bringing his Overbike to a halt.

"Hang on, I got a bit of a problem," said Jeremy, typing in random keystrokes to see what would happen.

"We're not picky, as long as it's not a biggie!" said Odd, trying to fight off more Hornets.

"Hang on, there's a password. Something to do with- Carthage, I think," said Jeremy, racking his brain for the answer.

"This is no time for a history lesson!" said Ulrich, deflecting shots from more Hornets.

"A history lesson?" asked Jeremy, getting a brain wave, "That's exactly what I need!" Jeremy went over to his school bag, and took the book out of it he had gotten from Franz's house.

"But that would be too easy," muttered Jeremy, but he had no other options.

Ulrich drove up next to low flying Hornet, and sliced through it. Another one shot Ulrich's bike, and he fell off. Odd took care of the Hornet for Ulrich. The Hornets were getting to be too much for everyone. Ulrich was losing life points fast, and Odd had to dodge and weave to avoid hitting trees, and more Hornets. Yumi seemed to throw her fans as soon as she got them back, to avoid being overcome with the monsters. Seth and Hayden helped out where they could, but they couldn't be in three different places at once. Back in the factory, Jeremy was guessing the password they needed, and he wasn't having much luck. Ulrich snapped him out of his daze.

"Hey Jeremy!" said Ulrich, panting, "Any day now!" he said. Jeremy didn't know what to do, so he went back to guessing passwords, hoping it would bring Aelita back. Everyone was dying, even Hayden and Seth were taking damage under the heavy fire of the Hornets.

"Whenever you're ready Einstein!" said Odd, running out of laser arrows.

"Hey you guys, I'm doing my best!" said Jeremy. The hornets proved too much for Odd, and got shot in the back when he wasn't paying attention. Odd fell off his Overboard, and landed on the forest floor. Yumi's Overboard was shot, and using the last of its power, she piloted it to earth as it disappeared under her feet.

"I'm sure I'll get this!" said Jeremy, panic returning to his voice.

Hayden got shot and he fell off the platform of the Overboat, and another Hornet shot the boat, and Seth fell too. They landed in the middle of the group as they were surrounded by Hornets, all ready to devirtualize them.

"Oh no, I can't believe this!" groaned Yumi in disbelief.

"I'm going around in circles!" said Jeremy's voice, he was in full panic mode. "Welcome to Carthage!" said Jeremy, hoping it would make sense if he repeated it to himself. Jeremy took a moment to think, and everyone could hear him talk as he tried to figure out what Carthage really meant. They hoped Jeremy would hurry up, because by the looks of it, they wouldn't be there for long to let Jeremy figure it out. Jeremy must have figured something out, because after he typed in another password, all sorts of windows closed, and others opened.

"I can't believe it!" he said in victory.

"Neither can I Jeremy, we were almost bee bait!" said Seth.

"The hornets are calling it off!" said Yumi, grateful.

"Aw, come back you cowards!" said Odd, trying to play it tough.

A large, round, white sphere came from under the platform, it had the mark of X.A.N.A on it in blue. Ulrich spotted it, and pointed it out to everyone else.

"What's that ball doing there?" he said.

The ball hovered over their heads, and then descended down to them. The ball opened up and swallowed up the Lyoko warriors.

"I think the code word 'Scipio' made it appear!" said Jeremy as the warriors were swallowed by the strange ball.

The ball reformed itself, took one lap around the end of the platform, then took off! The ball rushed through the forest sector, and towards the bright, white light at the other end of the sector. The ball passed through the white light, and entered into a sphere of data. The ball slowed as it entered into a round arena, and then came to a stop in the center of the room. The ball hovered down to the floor, and when it touched, it opened up, there was a flash of light, and the Lyoko warriors popped out of the ball. The ball took off as soon as it opened, and left the warriors standing in the middle of a large, open room. Yumi stumbled a bit, Odd looked like he was going to be sick, and Seth looked a little green too. The only ones who weren't affected by the erratic flight of the ball, were Ulrich and Hayden.

"How did you do that Jeremy?" asked Ulrich.

"Let's say I got a little help from Franz Hopper!" said Jeremy's voice from the roof of the dome they were in, "Welcome to sector five everyone!" said Jeremy cryptically.

"What does it look like?" asked Yumi. All she could see was the dome they were in.

"It looks like a sphere..." said an awestruck Jeremy. He was interrupted when a third window popped up on his screen. It was a countdown, and only had about a minute and a half on the timer. Jeremy didn't like the look of it, "It's probably bad news,." he said.

Jeremy heard Aelita shout for help, and he led the group across a bridge, and down an uneven hallway. Ulrich and the rest of the group heard Aelita scream, and he took off using his speed to try and save her. Everything about this new sector seemed weirder and weirder by the second.

"Jeremy, there's this- thing- in here" said Ulrich, looking at a monster he could only describe as a large jelly fish with the arms of a squid.

"Destroy it!" said Jeremy, "That thing is taking away Aelita's memory!"

Yumi whipped into action, throwing one of her fans to slice the tentacles of the jellyfish- thing. Ulrich ran to catch her, slicing one of the other monsters in the room with his saber as he ran by. The monster groaned, and then exploded in a mess of goo. Ulrich ran to catch Aelita as she fell, and just made it as she fell to the ground. Ulrich ran back to the group as Odd, Seth, and Hayden were shooting at the rest of the monsters in the room. Yumi used her fans to protect them all, and between the three of them- Hayden, Odd, and Seth- the monsters didn't last long. Jeremy shouted to them as the countdown neared it's end. The room they were in started to shift and change, and Ulrich called out to Odd and Hayden as they continued to fire at the weird monsters, and the jellyfish thing. The platform they were on lifted up, and Hayden and Odd knew it was time to go. They ran back down the uneven hallway, and doors started to slam shut as they ran, all of them tried keeping ahead of the large slamming doors, for fear of being crushed by them.

They reached the main dome and the footbridge, just as the last door slammed shut, barely missing Odd's tail, and Seth's rifle. Jeremy was relieved that they all made it back. They all ran back into the main dome room, and Yumi and Ulrich were winded, Aelita fell on the ground in exhaustion, and Odd stopped short. Seth and Hayden were leaning on each other, breathing hard. Seth pulled back his hood, trying to get air to his dying lungs.

"Hang on...I'm entering the code: 'Scipio'" said Jeremy, typing on his keyboard.

"We got your ticket out of here, Aelita," said Odd, joining them all in the middle of the arena.

The ball came back and floated down on their heads. There was a flash of light, and the ball opened up and swallowed the warriors. The ball dropped them back in the Forest Sector, in front of a tower. Aelita ran into it, and Jeremy dematerialized her. Jeremy then dematerialized everyone else, bringing them back to the factory. Hayden felt his vision go dark, and then he woke up in his body, as the tube opened and he saw Seth and Ulrich step out of a tube at the same time. Everyone was tired, even Jeremy.

Later that night, they all gathered in Seth and Hayden's room. It was farther away from all the other rooms, and guaranteed that there would be no listening in. Odd tried describing the fifth Sector to Jeremy, and when he mentioned the jellyfish thing, Kiwi growled. Aelita was so upset that it was stealing her memories. Jeremy figured that X.A.N.A was probably using it to get something from Aelita, but he couldn't figure out what. Ulrich and Yumi both expressed their wish to return to the fifth sector, but Jeremy said it wasn't safe, and he needed time to study it before he was to send anyone back there. Jeremy deemed it 'uncharted territory' and put it off-limits until he had time to look it over. Aelita apologized about running away, and Jeremy cut her off. Jeremy explained they weren't mad, and knew it wasn't her fault she ran off.

Jeremy leaned in and whispered to Aelita, "I promise to spend more time with you."

Aelita smiled and Jeremy blushed. Odd even offered to teach Aelita on how to deal with Sissi. Just then, Sissi stepped into Hayden and Seth's open room, and accused Odd of letting his dog use the bathroom in the shower rooms. Sissi didn't stop there though, she teased all of them about how they were all gathered together, and they had found Aelita. She called her 'Mrs. Einstein' and Aelita didn't like that. Ulrich tried getting rid of her by yelling at her for taking too many showers, and Odd tried to add to it so that she really would leave, but he was in such a fit, that he couldn't come up with anything. Aelita stepped in and closed the deal, saying that with all the water Sissi used, she might just sprout a brain. Sissi looked slightly taken aback, and she left, calling them all 'morons'. They all laughed at Aelita's joke, and Ulrich said she could give Odd lessons.

Everyone laughed again, and they spent a couple of hours talking, joking, and eating some of the food out of Hayden and Seth's mini-fridge. After it got late, Yumi went home, and Jeremy, Odd and Ulrich went back to their rooms, and Aelita went downstairs to hers.

Hayden and Seth got ready for bed, and Seth went to sleep first. Hayden stayed up to keep an eye on Seth. It wasn't long until Seth started stirring in his sleep. Hayden lifted himself off his bed, and looked at Seth. He was worried he was going to hurt himself. In Seth's mind, his mind was racked with the same nightmares. Everything was the same: courtroom, accusation, no words, underpants, laughing, and then change scene. This time, the courtyards seemed really dark, Seth could barely make out Hayden as he walked towards him from a far off. Seth waved at Hayden, and Hayden waved back. Seth could see someone step out of the shadows, and then point a gun at Hayden. Seth went to warn Hayden, but the shot rang out anyway, and Hayden collapsed as he was hit. The person who pulled the trigger stepped out into the moonlight, and Seth could see that it was someone he knew that had pulled the trigger. Seth didn't get a good look though, it was darker in his dream, and he felt his heart give, and he collapsed on the ground too. Seth woke with a start, and he immediately looked over towards Hayden. Hayden was sitting up on his bed, arms folded. He wasn't impressed.

"We need to talk," Hayden ordered sternly, and Seth wished he was back asleep.

Next Chapter: "Disappearing Act"

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Thanks to Redwolf11 for being my new beta, and editing this chapter so that it makes more sense...I actually feel like _**I**_understand this chapter more after having him read through it. Stay tuned, and keep an eye out for when I'll ask you guys for your ideas!


	15. Disappearing Act

Time: One Week Later

Chapter 15: "Disappearing Act" (Based off the Code Lyoko episode "Exploration.")

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School had been in session for two weeks already, and in that time Hayden and Seth had both grown in their capacity as Lyoko Warriors. They helped out on Lyoko, as well as in jams at school time and again. But X.A.N.A attacks seemed to be on the rise ever since they had gone back, and it was hard for some of them to focus on saving the world on a constant basis while keeping up with their mounds of schoolwork. Jeremy had done his analysis of Sector 5, but still deemed it unsafe due to their lack of inside knowledge about it. Aelita kept wanting to go back there, but Jeremy didn't want to send her, for fear the new monster, the Scyphozoa, would attack her and steal her memories for some still unknown reason.

Late one night, after another X.A.N.A. attack, Ulrich talked about wanting to be done with X.A.N.A. for good. Odd reminded him that it would be a bad idea to do that. X.A.N.A. had implanted a virus into Aelita, linking her to the supercomputer whether she wanted to be or not. So it made turning off the supercomputer a big "no-no" for the time being until Jeremy found a way to counteract the virus X.A.N.A. had implanted. While everyone was discussing a plan to return to Sector Five, Hayden and Seth both agreed to act as support in their mission, but their mind's were on something else that night.

Hayden was thinking about what Ulrich said, and he didn't want the computer turned off. With it gone, he didn't know whether Seth would still exist with it off. Jeremy had run scans on both him and Seth, and had determined that if the supercomputer was to be shut off, Seth would be fine. The program that had created him was separate from that of the codes of the virus that kept Aelita linked to the supercomputer. All the tests made Hayden feel better for a while, but after a couple of days, the fears returned. Hayden had just met Seth it seemed, and now he felt like he wouldn't know what he would do without him, he felt just like a little brother. Hayden knew he would be shattered without Seth around anymore. Seth almost seemed to compliment Hayden in a way no one had ever seen before.

Where Hayden was neat and orderly, Seth was messy, but Hayden didn't mind, it gave him something to do, besides trying to keep up with Seth at parkour, which Seth excelled at. Where Seth was creative and expressive, almost like Odd, Hayden was smart and got good grades in all of their academic classes, almost like Jeremy. Seth acted immature, but Hayden always was his grounding factor, bringing him back to reality when he got too annoying. Hayden smiled thinking about Seth and all the things they did as brothers now that he was around. He looked at Seth, but Seth looked worried. Hayden thought they were about the nightmares he had.

Seth was worried for other reasons though. He had the same fear of the supercomputer being turned off, but for different reasons. He knew if he was to go away, that Hayden would die too. He still hadn't told Hayden about the technicality that Jeremy had found in the program that created Seth that made it so that if he or Hayden died, the other would die too. He didn't want to worry Hayden, so he hadn't told him. But after Hayden found out Seth was having nightmares, it had been harder and harder to keep that fact from him. So when Hayden pried him for answers, Seth only told him about the courtroom part of his nightmare. Hayden laughed, and told Seth it was probably nerves. Hayden figured Seth inherited his own fear of the gang when he was created, and that's why he was afraid of seeing the proceedings of the trial in the papers. Hayden joked that if Seth ever got called into court, that he should just wear a strong belt, and he should be fine. After that, Hayden stopped bothering Seth about his nightmares.

Seth didn't share in Hayden's amusement about pants support, and he was still worried about the other part of his nightmare. Seth made sure that Hayden was asleep before he went to bed so that Hayden wouldn't wake up and question him again about his reoccurring nightmares. Every time he had the nightmare, Seth tried seeing who it was that killed Hayden. Seth didn't know if this dream really was nerves, or if it was a prediction of the future. So Seth tried looking at the person who shot Hayden every time he had the nightmare to try and figure it out. So far Seth had only been able to make out crude facial features, or something about the clothing of the person. The person had a scruffy beard, and brown, unkempt, oily hair. Seth thought of people he knew that fit that description, but nothing came to mind.

What was really weird though, was even though the man who shot Hayden looked terrible, he had nice shoes and a suit, Seth noticed this one night when his dream self had fallen to the courtyard ground for the second time that night. The nightmares had gotten so bad that Seth was having them more than once a night. Seth was worried he was going to drive himself crazy for something that might not even happen. But Seth had taken it upon himself to go with Hayden wherever he went at night to make sure his nightmare never came true.

"Hey? Are you guys paying attention?" asked Jeremy, turning in his chair to see the vacant looks on Hayden and Seth's faces.

The two shook themselves out of their daydreams and nodded. Jeremy scowled.

"We were just talking about how we planned on returning to the fifth Sector tomorrow night after dinner, are you guys with us?" asked Jeremy. Hayden and Seth both mumbled their agreement, and then they tried to space out once more. Jeremy called them back.

"Hey! I need your guys' mind in this, now are you with us or not?" shouted Jeremy. Hayden and Seth stopped daydreaming and both gave a resounding agreement. Jeremy sighed from frustration and told everyone to go home and get some rest.

Once outside the factory, Yumi looked at the dark sky, and then to her phone for the time.

"Oh my gosh! It is so late! My parents are probably going bananas!" shouted Yumi as she broke into a run, her words tumbling out of her mouth in a hurry. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, bye!"

The rest of the group returned to the school and tried to get some sleep. Seth waited for Hayden's breath to slow and deepen, before he began another restless night of nightmares. The next morning, Seth yawned and stretched as he went down the hallway, waking up the boys in the dorms. Herb and Nicholas snickered as they saw Seth again, and Hayden shot them dirty looks. Herb and Nicholas stopped laughing, and left their rooms in a hurry to take a shower. After breakfast, the group went to meet Yumi before classes, but she wasn't alone, her parents had accompanied her to school to keep an eye on her. Yumi explained later that her parents didn't quite trust her after last night when she had come home, and lied about where she had been.

Yumi felt disappointed in herself for lying about her whereabouts and why she was coming home late. But she also didn't feel right telling them the truth about how she was fighting to save the world with five other boys. She knew that her parents wouldn't believe her if she told them she was fighting to save the world. But she knew they would flip if she was hanging out with five other boys that they hardly knew. So, to keep an eye on her at all times, they were going to do just that. They all walked over to the vending machines, and Yumi bought a hot chocolate to drown her sorrows in. Jeremy suggested that she skip the exploration of the fifth Sector that night so that she could stay home with her parents and make everything seem on the 'up-and-up'. Yumi didn't want to leave the team one short. She knew the dangers of Sector five, and she knew it would take all of them to protect Aelita (who was going with them if there were any towers to deactivate later). Jeremy assured her that they would be fine, and told everyone to go to class.

Yumi tossed half a hot chocolate in the trash, and went to class with Seth and Hayden, depressed. Classes flew by that day it seemed, and it wasn't long until the group found themselves in the factory, ready to be sent to Lyoko. Yumi called them right before they left, and she wished them luck. She stressed to them she was thinking about the mission.

Jeremy virtualized the other warriors into the Forest Sector, and they all took their vehicles to the edge of the sector to catch the transporter. Aelita decided to ride with Odd, but she soon regretted this decision. Odd showed off to Ulrich and Seth and Hayden who were playing it safe by following the forest path. Jeremy shouted at Odd for endangering Aelita. Ulrich laughed, and Odd rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry, Einstein, I'll be careful!" said Odd, weaving in between the floating trees.

They reached the edge of the sector, and Aelita was glad to finally feel solid ground. Jeremy quickly typed the code, his fingers trembling slightly from excitement. The transporter arrived to take them to the fifth sector. When it landed in the arena, Odd and Seth doubled over their stomachs.

"Ooh! I shouldn't have had that fifth dessert at lunch!" whined Odd.

Seth pulled his mask down to get some air into his lungs to steady himself. Hayden, Ulrich, and Aelita were fine, and they told Seth and Odd to buck up. The dome above their head stopped spinning, and the door out of the arena opened. Jeremy reminded them of what would happen if Aelita was to lose all of her virtual life points. Jeremy seemed panicked about thinking about it. Ulrich stopped Jeremy short.

"Don't worry Einstein, we won't let that happen. Besides, Odd promised to be careful!" Ulrich teased Odd. He didn't believe that Odd could be careful about anything, and Jeremy's anxiety expanded.

Hayden and Seth took up positions around Aelita like bodyguards, feeling important. Aelita rolled her eyes.

"Is that really necessary?"

"Jeremy asked us to be your support on this mission, we're not to let you out of our sight." said Seth, pulling his mask down to whisper to Aelita. He pulled it back up and winked at Aelita, then shrugged as if to try and apologize to her.

He drew his rifle and stood behind the pinkette, as Hayden drew his pistol and stood in front if her. Aelita liked Jeremy, and she knew he was only doing this for her own good, but he could be a bit of a pain at times when it came to protecting her.

Jeremy guided them down the hallway from the factory, and the group soon found themselves in a labyrinth of blue squares. Ulrich took lead every time, his speed meant that he was ahead of the group, and was able to scout out the passages before they all went down them. But the labyrinth was too much for them, and they often found themselves going around in circles. Aelita decided to try and take a different fork one time, but when she took two steps down the hallway, she flew backwards after being shot by a Creeper. Hayden and Ulrich bent down to rescue her, and Odd and Seth shot it, causing the creature to explode in a shower of goo.

"I hate those things!" said Hayden, annoyed.

"Those Creepers sure are powerful, and they're ugly too." said Odd, looking at the puddle of goo as it vanished in a burst of static.

The team decided not to go down that hallway, and so they soon found themselves lost again because they had lost track of where they were, thanks to the Creeper. Jeremy gave them a hint.

"You guys are in a labyrinth, take a left at every fork and leave a mark. If you see a mark, go right!" Ulrich pulled out his saber and notched the wall at every turn they made. Ulrich thought he had finally found the way out, but instead, he almost ran off the platform outside of the sphere, and into nothingness.

"That's not it!" said Ulrich, rebalancing himself.

"Jeremy, we're lost, is there anything you can see on your end?" asked Odd, half-pleading.

"Oh, you need me?" said Jeremy, he felt like he was being abandoned this mission. He typed a few things into the supercomputer, and brought up a map of the labyrinth, "There's a mechanism on the wall in the room behind you. Hurry up, the countdown is almost over!"

Ulrich and the others ran back into the other room, and Ulrich spotted the mechanism high up on the wall.

"Looks like the job for a cat," he said, smirking at Odd. Odd nodded and started to climb up the uneven wall to reach the button. Seth and Hayden had to contain themselves as they watched Odd climb up the wall, feeling jittery as they just stood there. But they knew if they left Aelita, Jeremy would never let them hear the end of it. Odd was close to the mechanism when Jeremy called out.

"12! 11! 10! 9! 8! 7!" Jeremy got more panicked with each descending number. Odd jumped and was about to hit the button when he was shot from behind by a Creeper he didn't see before. Odd was devirtualized, and the room started changing as the countdown fell to zero. Ulrich was shot by another Creeper, and he vanished as he too was devirtualized. Seth stepped in the way of the Creeper from taking out Aelita, and Seth vanished too. Hayden emptied his clip into the Creeper, and it exploded. The walls around Hayden and Aelita shifted, closing them in like a box.

"No!" cried Hayden, banging feebly on the walls to attempt escape.

"Aelita! Hayden! How are you doing?" asked Jeremy's voice.

"Well, no more Creepers, that's a start." said Aelita, watching Hayden continue yelling at the walls. Hayden didn't do well in small, enclosed spaces.

"I'll revirtualize Odd, Ulrich, and Seth to get you guys out of there, hang on," said Jeremy, typing on the supercomputer. "Come on! Come on!" whined Jeremy. He didn't know if he was actually going to get Ulrich, Odd, and Seth back at all. Jeremy hopped out of his chair, and quickly took the step-ladder in the floor down to the scanner room. The scanners popped open, but they were empty! Jeremy quickly ran back to the computer.

"Aelita! Hayden! Odd, Ulrich, and Seth didn't come back!"

"What?" asked Aelita and Hayden at the same time. Hayden stopped banging on the walls to use a few choice words to describe what he would do to Jeremy if he didn't bring Seth back.

But- That's impossible!" said Aelita, cutting Hayden off as he got really into screaming at their blonde computer geek friend. "Are they lost?" she asked.

"For the moment they are," said Jeremy, Aelita could tell he was taking this really hard.

"So there's no rematerialization from Sector five?" Aelita asked.

"Sure there is!" said Jeremy, trying to sound upbeat. "I just haven't found it yet," he added, muttering now.

"Can you find it?" asked Hayden.

"It's probably as easy as finding Aelita's anti-virus," said Jeremy, close to tears. Hayden was about to yell at Jeremy again, but the blonde cut him off.

"Don't worry- I'm going to do the impossible!" he said, and he set out straight to work.

Yumi called Jeremy, and he told her to get to the factory right away. He continued to sift through codes and programs, hoping to randomly find the correct one. Aelita stopped Hayden from banging on the walls, and they sat on the ground, back to back, in the center of the square. Hayden sighed, he didn't know what he would do if Jeremy couldn't get Seth back. He felt as if his clone- his brother- was still out there, but he couldn't tell why he felt that way. Having that feeling in his mind made him feel better, and he stood up and helped Aelita to her feet.

"We're not going to get out of here sitting around. Let's try and find another way out," Hayden looked around the walls, and Aelita went the opposite direction, hoping to find a flaw in the wall they could exploit.

"What I wouldn't give to have Seth's intangibility right about now..." mumbled Hayden. Aelita agreed, she was starting to get tired of looking at the same things. Hayden and Aelita both froze when they heard a screeching sound.

"Please tell me that is not what I think it is," sighed Hayden, freezing in place.

"I wish I could," groaned Aelita.

Hayden and Aelita both knew what it was, and they both backed up against the back wall. They knew that any moment the Scyphozoa was going to try and get in. Another countdown came and went, and the structure of the sector changed again, this time, a door opened in their box. Relieved, Hayden and Aelita went to get out, but the Scyphozoa entered instead.

Hayden pulled Aelita up against the wall and focused on both being invisible. The duo vanished from sight, but the Scyphozoa didn't stop. It slithered right up to where Aelita was and grabbed her from Hayden. Hayden knew there was probably no use hiding her from sight since X.A.N.A could sense where she was because of that stupid virus. Hayden broke away from the wall, and stopped being invisible as the Scyphozoa started draining Aelita's memories. He pulled out his pistol, and tried being stealthy. Unfortunately, the Scyphozoa saw him and swept a large tentacle at Hayden, knocking him off his feet and into a wall. The boy was hit into a daze.

As Hayden slumped against the wall, Jeremy watched on the computer monitor. He shouted for Yumi to hurry, who had just arrived at Sector five.

Yumi was having her own problems. She was facing another countdown, and a field of lasers that kept her from the mechanism that was to stop it.

Back on Earth, however, Yumi's parents were worried where Yumi had gotten to, and had called the principal to see if she had gone to the school. Mr. Ishiyama called Mr. Campbell as well. Mr. Ishiyama worked with Mr. Campbell at his publishing company, and Mr. Ishiyama knew that Hayden and Seth were friends with his daughter, since Mr. Campbell had met her. Mr. Ishiyama knew that if anything, Mr. Campbell would know where to find his sons, and likely Yumi as well. Mr. Campbell pulled up in a nice car, still dressed in his pajamas. The Campbell butler, Roger, stepped out of the car, and opened the door for his employer. Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama walked up to Mr. Campbell and shook his hand. The wealthy man stifled a yawn, and the four adults walked up to Principal Delmas and the Kadic gym teacher, Jim.

Yumi had gotten through the lasers and was nearing the mechanism, she reached it just in time, and the sector changed again. The walls of the sector cut the Scyphozoa from Aelita, and it was forced to let go to avoid one from cutting its tentacles. Hayden fell on the floor as the wall behind them opened, and when his head hit the ground he sat up quickly and proclaimed, "I wasn't sleeping!"

Aelita laughed and helped him to his feet.

They both ran through the new labyrinth no problem, it hadn't changed much in their time in the box, and so they were able to find the platform where Ulrich almost fell off easily. The outside seemed as empty as ever, until Yumi went flying by on an open elevator!

Aelita called out to Yumi as she went flying by, and Yumi tried grabbing Hayden and Aelita as she went by for another pass. It took two more tries for Yumi to finally be able to grab Hayden, and Hayden held Aelita's hand so she could come with him. The girl dangled off the elevator until Hayden and Yumi were able to pull her up on the fast-moving platform with them.

The elevator stopped, and a door at the end of the elevator opened. Hayden and Yumi looked at each other, wondering where it went. Aelita ran in first, eager for exploration. Yumi hurried to stay ahead of Aelita, and Hayden took up his place behind. They entered a larger, open space, surrounded by a large sphere of data screens. The size of it all baffled Hayden, and left Yumi speechless. Aelita walked right to the edge to look over. A flat, terminal screen appeared as Aelita reached the edge. Aelita quickly logged in and started browsing the data contained within. Aelita gasped.

"What?" asked Hayden and Yumi, whipping around to look at Aelita.

"It's incredible!" she said.

"What?!" shouted Hayden, Yumi, and Jeremy, curious.

"The interface- it gives me access- to X.A.N.A's own data!" Aelita gasped, and Hayden thought he was going to fall off the thin platform in surprise, and Jeremy almost fell from his chair when he heard her.

Sector five is where X.A.N.A lives!" Now Hayden and Jeremy were really floored. Yumi looked around at the larger blue sphere surrounding the sector, and saw all the data screens scattered on the walls. They all suddenly felt more paranoid.

"X.A.N.A's not a very good housekeeper," she said. "There's some weird things hanging around this place."

Yumi noticed some bulges on the wall, and found she didn't like the look of them.

"I've got access to all kinds of data, it's crazy!" said Aelita, almost tipsy with excitement.

"Look for the specific devirtualization code for Sector 5, if you find it, we can rescue Odd, Seth, and Ulrich!" said Jeremy, hoping his answer would be somewhere in the data Aelita was looking through.

The bulges on the wall got bigger, and then they broke free from it, and formed themselves into all new monsters. They looked like large, flying manta rays. They flew around for a second, and at first, Hayden and Yumi thought they were friendly, but the Mantas turned and Yumi saw the mark of X.A.N.A on their backs.

"Jeremy, I'm going to need the Overwing!" said Yumi, wanting to hurry Aelita along.

"Uh-oh, bad news- when Aelita's working on that interface, I can't do anything from my end."

Aelita carried on with the user interface like she hadn't heard anything. But she said to Jeremy instead, "I think I found the code, I'm transmitting it to you." And with that, she closed the user interface.

"Okay, I'm taking over again," said Jeremy, beginning to type.

Mr. Delmas, Jim, Mr. Campbell, the butler Roger, and Mrs. and Mr. Ishiyama had all followed Kiwi to the factory. They were confused about what Hayden, Seth, and Yumi would be doing in a place like the abandoned factory. Kiwi jumped towards a rope, gripping it with his teeth and dropping. Mr. Campbell jumped towards one and slid with surprising agility. He acted like a man many years younger than he was.

"Sir! Should you be doing that?" asked Roger, astonished.

"Roger, there's a lot of things you don't know about me," said Mr. Campbell. He left it at that.

Back on Lyoko, Yumi was begging Jeremy for the Overwing to get away from the new monsters before they started attacking. Jeremy sent it to her, along with the Overboat. Hayden quickly jumped into the control seat, and Yumi got on the Overwing, pulling Aelita behind her. They all quickly took off, leaving the manta things behind. Yumi and Hayden flew above the small sphere inside the sector.

"How do we get out of here?" asked Yumi, looking for anything they could use to leave.

"There are tunnels," Aelita noticed, pointing to the four streams of data that poured out of the small sphere into the larger surrounding one.

"But they're closed!" said Yumi, upset. She didn't want to argue with Aelita, especially since the manta things had just started firing at them all, and she and Hayden had to stop and dodge the new threats.

Jeremy talked to himself for a moment, trying to figure where the tunnels opened up to. He did some quick fire thinking, and stopped one of the streams so that the group could exit through one of them. Yumi congratulated Jeremy and she made for the open tunnel. Hayden followed as the hurried for the exit of the sector. A manta-thing cut them off; a white beam powering up by where it's mouth might have been, and fired. Yumi fell off of her Overwing, but Hayden quickly maneuvered the Overboat and caught her. Aelita drifted through the cloud of blue and white. Apparently they weren't able to leave the fifth sector.

"Welcome aboard!" said Hayden in his best pirate voice, as Yumi landed in his vehicle.

"Shut up and drive," snapped the Japanese girl, shifting her weight to sit on the other seat.

The three of them left the sector through a tower. Jeremy guided them to another one so he could rematerialize Aelita. Yumi and Hayden provided an escort, and she got to the tower with no problems.

Jeremy rematerialized Aelita, and Hayden, and Yumi. They all stood around in the scanner room as Jeremy entered the program to rematerialize Seth, Ulrich and Odd. The scanners whirred to life and Jeremy hoped it was working. He held Aelita's hand nervously, and she squeezed back.

The doors to the scanners popped open, and steam poured out. As it cleared, the group could make out three figures- Ulrich, Odd, and Seth, as they all fell out of their scanner tubes, coughing. Hayden rushed to Seth, Yumi ran to Ulrich, and Jeremy and Aelita leaped to Odd.

"Are you guys okay?" they all asked, "Say something!" said Jeremy to Odd.

Odd, Seth, and Ulrich all smiled, and they all weakly groaned, "Something."

Yumi smacked Ulrich over the head, and he grinned. Jeremy and Aelita rolled their eyes, and Hayden pulled Seth up by the collar of his jacket, and pulled him into a rib-cracking hug.

"Don't do that to me!" said Hayden, pulling Seth away from himself to look at him.

"Okay, mom" said Seth, shaking himself out and giving his brother a teasing look. Hayden scowled, but he left it alone.

The Lyoko gang all went to the elevator and were about to leave the factory, when Kiwi jumped out. Odd laughed, confused.

"Kiwi!" he said, catching the small dog.

"Yumi?!" asked Mr. Ishiyama. The door opened to show Mr. Delmas, Jim, Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama, Mr. Campbell, and Roger, his butler, all standing there, waiting for the group to show up.

"Dad!" gasped Yumi.

"Hayden?" asked Roger the butler, looking at Seth instead.

"Seth!" shouted Mr. Campbell, looking at Hayden.

"Dad?!" shouted the twins.

"Della Robbia!" shouted Mr. Delmas, pointing to Kiwi in his arms.

"Belpois!" shouted Jim, noticing Jeremy trying to close the elevator again.

Seth, Hayden, Yumi, Ulrich, Aelita, and Odd all ran out of the elevator, and went separate ways.

Mr. Campbell chased after Seth and Hayden. The two ran up a wall, and were soon out of reach of their father.

Yumi ran one way down the factory floor, leading her parents away.

Odd ran a different direction, leading Mr. Delmas astray.

Jim slipped into the elevator with Jeremy as the door closed, and it descended into the depths of the factory.

Aelita and Ulrich were the only ones to get away without someone chasing them, so they ran for the ropes and climbed up rapidly to escape the madness.

Roger the butler didn't know what to do, so he threw his hands up in the air, and walked off with Ulrich and Aelita.

A flash of light issued up the elevator shaft, and Hayden and Seth smiled. The kids all cheered as they ran their separate ways,

"Return to the past, now!"

The day rewound, and Yumi was walking back up the main path to the school, earlier that morning. Mr. and Mrs. Ishiyama stopped her and asked her if she would finally tell them why she was coming home late. Yumi whispered something to her parents. Mr. Ishiyama put an arm around Mrs. Ishiyama, and Mrs. Ishiyama beamed with pride. Yumi smiled too, and her explanation seemed to satisfy her parents because her dad did not tell her that he would be picking her up. Yumi waved goodbye to her parents, and she ran to meet with her friends.

"Well that seemed to cheer them up, what did you tell them?" asked Ulrich.

"The truth," she said, brushing a strand of hair out of her face and blushing. The group exchanged confused looks.

They all split to go to their classes. Hayden walked next to Yumi, and asked her a question.

"Hey, is there anything your family from Japan does when someone is having nightmares?" asked Hayden as they walked to class. Seth perked up when he heard this, anger swelling in his chest.

"Yeah, we do a couple of things, why?" asked Yumi.

"There's someone I know who's having nightmares, and they could use some help," said Hayden, in a roundabout way.

"Sure! I'd love to tell you!" said Yumi.

Seth knew that this was going to be one night that he knew he didn't want to be around for.

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Next Chapter:"Solving Problems in a Month of Tuesdays"


	16. Solving Problems in a Month of Tuesdays

Okay, thanks to all of my readers who helped push my story over 450 views this past week!

I think that following this chapter I will no longer be doing the setting/time thing unless I expect a large jump in time, and I would need to tell you about it, or many changes in setting that it would help to have it to ease any confusion you readers might have.

After this chapter, I'm going to take a break from the main story line, and let you guys send in any ideas you have for Code Lyoko stories. Just send me a PM with small bits I can work with, large story descriptions are hard to work with, and I would be afraid to mess it up for the person who sent it in. (Something like this for the episode based off 'Killer Music': "When X.A.N.A. creates an MP3 file that puts anyone who listens to it into a coma, Odd ends up being the first victim. Soon, the rest of the city begins to follow, including Ulrich and Jeremy".)

I will be choosing the plot line of the first person who sends in a (decent) story description, don't be afraid to send in anything though, I am a very flexible and laid back writer (if you want to mess with my OC's Seth and Hayden, go right ahead, but within reason, I don't want to kill them!), Plus, I can write to just about any description you send in.

And keep them coming! I like to have things to work with, so as long as you have ideas, send them in, I will never be done looking for more ideas.

Okay, enough about that. To the story!

Chapter 16: "Solving Problems in a Month of Tuesdays" (Based off the Code Lyoko episode "A Great Day")

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Later at night about another week later, Hayden and Seth got ready for bed. But once again, Seth was not anticipating going to sleep. After a long night in sector five gathering data, Hayden was ready to try another remedy for Seth's nightmares. He had borrowed some things from Yumi to help combat his nightmares, but those didn't work. So Hayden had found some things on the internet to help with them. Seth could smell lavender oil floating in the air, he had calming music playing through a personal music player in his ears, and Hayden had even used a hot water bottle to warm Seth's bed. Seth sighed as he looked around at the things Hayden had done as attempts to stop the bad dream.

"Is this really necessary? I think that this is stressing me out more than it is relaxing me." said Seth, sitting up in bed to look at Hayden as he got in his own.

"Tell me in the morning," said Hayden, turning over in bed, and falling asleep.

Seth sighed and turned the relaxing music off. He pulled the hot water bottle out from under his mattress, and emptied it in the sink of their bathroom quietly. The only thing Seth couldn't get rid of was the smell of lavender oil in the air, but he felt better now. He slipped back into bed, and closed his eyes into sleep. His dreams shifted wildly and he found himself in the courtroom again.

He made his accusation, and pointed at Brock in the witness' stand. Something wasn't right though. When he went to point, Seth held a rose in his hand!

Seth shook his head in confusion, and dropped the flower. Brock laughed sharply at him, and when he looked up he saw the gang leader was holding a bouquet of violets. Seth glanced over at the jury, and all the old gang members were holding all different bouquets of flowers and making fun of Seth. He looked down, and he was wearing a pair of boxers with a flowery print. Seth couldn't make heads or tails of the new turn in his dream. He figured the lavender oil must have got to him.

The nightmare changed and Seth found himself standing in the dimly lit courtyards at school. The air smelt sharply of daisies and petunias. He noticed Hayden walking towards him. Seth went to warn his twin, but found his mouth was full of flowers. This nightmare was definitely the weirdest Seth had yet. The gunshot rang out, and a red carnation sprouted from Hayden's chest where the bullet hit. Seth didn't know what to do, and he collapsed on the ground without being able to see who it was who shot Hayden.

"You should tell your brother to stop trying to help you with these nightmares, they're getting too-flowery," said a gruff voice near Seth's head.

Seth's dream had changed a little, the man who shot Hayden was standing over him. Seth thought he recognized the voice, but he couldn't put his finger on where he had heard it before. Seth tried looking at who it was that had shot his brother, but Seth didn't have the energy to raise his head. His heart gave out, and he woke with a start. The air no longer smelled of lavender, and Seth was able to go back to sleep and not be plagued by the weird nightmares anymore.

It was Tuesday, and Hayden and Seth woke up to get started on their dorm monitor positions as usual. The radio announcer said that it was going to be a good day. Seth agreed, and he got up feeling refreshed. He seemed oddly at peace, Hayden noticed.

Seth felt better than he had in days. After the nightmare last night, Seth was focused more on trying to figure out where he had heard the man's voice before, and was so focused that his mind wasn't able to give him nightmares. Seth had actually gotten a decent night's amount of sleep, and was ready to go even before Hayden that morning. Herb and Nicholas got up to see if Seth was still as tired, but were surprised when Seth walked down the hallway, and he wasn't yawning.

"Hey! What gives? You're not tired!" said Herb as Seth passed by their door.

"Did you want me to be Pichon?" asked Seth with a smile.

Herb sputtered and stammered until he noticed Hayden coming back up the hall, and then he shut his mouth. He didn't want to end up at the back of the shower line again. Seth laughed under his breath, and went to join Hayden in monitoring the morning shower line.

After breakfast, the group got together to wait for Yumi. She was still pretty depressed about having to lie about where she was. Jeremy assured her that they were close to finding an answer that would allow them to be free of X.A.N.A for good.

"Jeremy, would you mind listening to something for me?" Sissi asked sweetly, pressing the 'play' button of her Walkman.

The voices of Jeremy and Aelita came out of the small speaker on the device. Apparently she had recorded Jeremy and Aelita as Jeremy said good night to her last night. Unfortunately, Jeremy and Aelita didn't know that Sissi was listening in, so they talked about Lyoko, Aelita not being fully human, and that she wasn't actually Odd's cousin from Canada.

Jeremy looked crushed, Aelita was furious, and it took Seth and Hayden both to keep Ulrich from punching Sissi. Odd had to stop Yumi from doing the same.

"If you don't let me in to your little group here and tell what you all have done, since, forever, I'm going to tell my father about your little secret here!" Sissi smiled. "You can give me your choice at four o'clock."

The group gathered later on the steps of the science building. Ulrich had come up with a plan. He invited Sissi to learn Pencak Silat with him, but he wasn't very happy about it. Ulrich hoped that Jeremy or anyone would come up with a better idea while he practiced with her. He told Ulrich to keep Sissi busy for as long as he could.

Ulrich got started on his lesson, and Sissi tried to copy him. Jeremy and the others laughed as Sissi failed at even the most simple moves. Suddenly, Jeremy saw a bright flash of light from outside.

Jeremy stared at it and said, "Return to the past- now?"

The day rewound, and all the warriors found themselves in their beds as Tuesday started up all over again.

"What was that?" asked Seth, as he woke up and looked at Hayden.

"I think Jeremy planned a return in time to give us another day to figure out Sissi." said Hayden.

The two got started on their watch duties. As Nicholas and Herb stuck their heads out again, Seth was ready. Herb asked Seth why he was so happy. Seth turned on Herb.

"Didn't you hear on the radio? They said a freak snowstorm was coming, and that today would possibly be a snow day for schools everywhere!" said Seth.

"No way, it's only October, there wouldn't be snow yet!" said Herb.

"That's why it's a freak snowstorm! Look!" Seth pointed out their window, and Herb and Nicholas ran to look out it.

Seth quietly closed their door, and went back to join Hayden as they monitored morning showers. Herb and Nicolas came out a couple of minutes later, and were about to yell at Seth, when they noticed how long the shower line was. Herb understood what Seth did in distracting them, and went to the end of the line with Nicholas, sulking.

"But I didn't program a return to the past!" said Jeremy, after they all had breakfast for the second time that day.

"Then how do you explain that Tuesday's started all over again?" asked Aelita.

"I don't know, let's go over to the factory after science class and check it out." said Jeremy.

"At least we have a second chance to get Sissi off our backs," said Ulrich, looking over at Sissi as she came up to talk to Jeremy again.

Jeremy, Aelita, Odd, and Ulrich all went to Mrs. Hertz's class while Hayden, Seth and Yumi went to History with Mr. Fumet. The group gathered together again at lunch time.

Jeremy had taken Yumi and Aelita to the factory, and virtualized them so they could be there to keep an eye on things, if X.A.N.A attacked. Jeremy also already had a plan to keep Sissi from joining their group, and from playing the tape she made for her father.

"I don't think you're going to like it though Ulrich," said Jeremy, starting to explain his idea.

"I need you to talk to Sissi and get her distracted with something again. I noticed she carries her Walkman in her bag, so if we could get her somewhere where we know she will put her bag, then we can get to it, and get the tape," said Jeremy. Ulrich really didn't like where this was going.

"I was thinking that you could get ask her to learn Pencak Silat with you again, that way she will be in the gym, and then we can break into her locker and get the tape from her gym locker while she's distracted with you. But this time you need to be nicer, she'll never believe us if you treat her like dirt," said Jeremy.

Ulrich really didn't like this plan now, but he went along with it because he knew it was the only way to keep their secret life a secret.

Hayden and Seth had to come up with excuses for Yumi to explain why she was gone. Around three that afternoon, after classes were done, Ulrich went up to Sissi and asked her if she wanted to learn Pencak Silat with him. Sissi gladly agreed, and the two of them left Herb and Nicholas behind and went to the gym.

Seth was spying on them from around the corner, and gave a thumbs up as he saw Ulrich and Sissi leave. Hayden, Jeremy, Odd, and Seth all snuck around the back of the gym and into the girl's locker room. They all searched for Sissi's locker. Odd found it, and Hayden looked at the lock. It had two on it.

The first lock wasn't a problem because it was a normal tumbler lock. Seth went to work, and he had it open in no time. The other was a problem. It was a combination lock, and Hayden didn't have a tool for that. Odd was drinking a soda he had picked up from another girl's locker that they had carelessly left open.

"Give me that!" said Hayden, and he took the soda, and emptied it into the trash.

"Hey! I would have drunk that!" said Odd.

Hayden ignored Odd, and took the empty can back to Sissi's locker. He took out a small pocketknife he had in another pouch on his belt, and cut the can so all he had left was a large, block, letter 'M'. Hayden bent the two outside arms of the 'M' in on each other and cut the middle part so that it was angled. With his makeshift shim, Hayden pushed it into the lock part of the combo lock, and then pulled down. The shim allowed him to slide the lock open, without having to know the code. With the locker open, Hayden pulled out Sissi's bag, and Odd and Jeremy went through it.

"How come you never taught me that trick?" asked Seth quietly.

Hayden looked at his shim, "A guy's gotta have some tricks to keep him ahead of the pack," he whispered, before he put it in his pocket.

Jeremy found Sissi's Walkman, and opened the tape deck. It was empty! They had gone to all this work for nothing. Herb and Nicholas pushed opened the door to the locker room fast. They looked victorious.

"Looking for this?" sang Herb, waving the mini-disk in the air.

Herb and Nicholas brought the would be thieves in front of Sissi as she tried learning from Ulrich.

"You were right Sissi, as usual," said Nicholas.

"They were going after the disk!" Herb added, handing said item to Sissi.

"Oh, gentlemen! Did you think you were smarter than me? You don't know me very well." said Sissi, looking at the five boys.

"Now, it's time to spill the beans! Tell me everything you've been up to for as long as I can remember! What's the big conspiracy?" she pointed a finger at the boys. Ulrich spoke up.

"Sissi, can I talk to you- as a friend?" Ulrich was working on the fly here.

"A friend?!" screeched Sissi, outraged.

"As a friend, I'm worried about Jeremy and Aelita. I know you're going to laugh, but..." sighed Ulrich.

"Laugh? Why?" asked Sissi, her mood softening a bit.

"Well, um- you see, they've kind of lost it." whispered Ulrich to her. Jeremy wasn't very happy with Ulrich now.

"For some strange reason they think that they're- virtual people!" said Ulrich, making a face to try and explain how weird it sounded. Jeremy was furious now.

"What's that?" asked Sissi.

He took the mini-disk from Sissi, and put it in the Walkman in Jeremy's hand. Ulrich pressed 'play'. Everyone could hear Aelita and Jeremy talk again. Ulrich paused the tape when it was done, and looked worried.

"It's worse than I thought, they've gone right off the deep end!" said Ulrich. Jeremy looked like he wanted to hurt Ulrich. He had never been called crazy in his life. Ulrich kept Sissi, Herb, and Nicholas distracted as Jeremy's laptop beeped, and the blonde pulled it out.

"Tower activated." whispered Jeremy to Hayden, Seth, and Odd. "X.A.N.A must be the reason we keep going back in time! He booby-trapped the data we collected from Sector five, and corrupted the program."

There was another bright flash from the location of the factory, and Jeremy looked up as it came towards them.

"Return to the past, now!"

The day rewound again. Hayden was getting really tired of it, but Seth didn't mind, with all these jumps back in time, he had been able to get the best rest he'd had in weeks. Although Hayden wouldn't have admitted it, but this was the best he had ever done in Mr. Chardin's art class in weeks. Seth was ready for another round with Herb and Nicholas.

"I was too easy on them last time!" said Seth as he walked down the hall with Hayden. Seth pulled on an army helmet he borrowed from Odd, and a megaphone he had snuck away from Jim when he wasn't looking. Instead of knocking on the door, Seth practically kicked it in.

"Alert! Alert!" Seth yelled into the megaphone. "We're under attack!"

Herb and Nicholas shot up in bed.

"What's going on?" asked Herb, reaching for his glasses.

"We're under attack Pichon!" shouted Seth at Herb, "I need you two to stay in this room and don't come out until I tell you!"

"Y-yes sir!" shouted Herb and Nicholas, raising their hands in salute.

Herb and Nicholas seemed to buy Seth's story, and he left their room and shut the door. He waited until he was down the hall, then burst out laughing. Nicholas and Herb poked their heads out a minute later. Seth had removed the army helmet, and gave Jim back his megaphone, claiming that one of the other students had stolen it to play a prank on some other students. With all the things the boy had used gone, Herb and Nicholas didn't know what to say. They thought that they had dreamed it all. Herb and Nicholas looked tired the rest of the day after Seth's little scare.

Jeremy and the others all ran to the factory after their first class. After the last return to the past, Yumi came back from Lyoko, but Jeremy didn't have time to program Aelita's return to Earth so she was stuck.

Also, with the pending threat of another X.A.N.A attack- and the possibility of another Tuesday looming over them all- Jeremy wanted to get right on it, and hoped they made it in time to stop X.A.N.A from making them spend the rest of their lives on that same day.

Jeremy virtualized everyone near where the activated tower would appear, which happened to not be too far from where Aelita was hidden, and the group set out on foot. Jeremy was using the computer to try and slow the oncoming attack by X.A.N.A.

On the way to the factory, the group had learned that X.A.N.A had learned the power of possessing people. X.A.N.A had possessed Sissi, and tried to stop them from getting to the factory by taking out Jeremy. Luckily, Hayden, Seth, and Ulrich had shown up looking for him, so they were able to fend off Sissi and make it to the factory. Now the X.A.N.A-fied Sissi, along with her goons- Nicholas and Herb- were trying to find a way into the factory.

Jeremy had locked the elevator at the bottom of the shaft, using the supercomputer. He had also closed off the hatch to the lab that was in the boiler room. They should be alright for at least a little while.

On Lyoko, Aelita was scared, X.A.N.A had already sent two swarms of Hornets through her area, looking for her. The stupid virus of hers made her an easy target, so she used her only power to create a fake, hollow boulder, in which she hid. So far, it had fooled X.A.N.A, but she was sure it wouldn't last long. Jeremy had talked to her to calm her, but Jeremy wasn't telling her the story. The Scyphozoa had left the fifth sector, and was nearing her location. Jeremy knew that it wouldn't be long until X.A.N.A found where Aelita was, and tried stealing her memories. Jeremy instead hurried the warriors along, and pointed them to where their friend was hidden.

Aelita heard the screeching of the Scyphozoa, and shouted out to Jeremy, but her shout got the attention of the Hornets and they shot Aelita's hiding spot until it fell apart around her. Aelita ran away- right into the tentacles of the Scyphozoa.

The Scyphozoa began draining her memories through it's long tentacles, and Jeremy shouted in panic at the warriors. Ulrich super-sprinted towards the pinkette first. He sliced her free from the monster, and Odd joined him as Ulrich caught her. The cat warrior shot an arrow at the creature, and it retreated.

Yumi protected Odd and Ulrich as they limped back to join the rest of the group. Hayden and Seth both shot the Hornets, and they all exploded under the combined power of the Lyoko Warriors. Ulrich and Odd helped Aelita walk, as they hobbled through the Sector to the tower that would soon be activated.

"It's kind of quiet." said Odd.

"Too quiet." remarked Ulrich.

"No, don't!" shouted Hayden, full out panicked.

"What? I was just saying, it's too quiet!" said Odd.

"Haven't you ever read stories, when someone says it is too quiet, something happens!" shouted Hayden.

"You guys just can't enjoy the present moment." said Odd.

Ulrich and everyone else heard the sound of lots of wings coming their way. Hayden groaned. Hornets came up over the ridge, and it wasn't just a small swarm. There were hundreds of them, it seemed.

"You had to open you mouth," groaned Hayden, scowling at the purple clad blonde.

"Jeremy, X.A.N.A is sending us Hornets!" said Yumi.

"I can see that, try to disrupt their flight patterns, that ought to weaken them." said Jeremy, still fighting to slow X.A.N.A down.

"Odd and Hayden, take Aelita to the tower. Ulrich, Seth and I will stall the monsters."

"Got it!" said Odd and Hayden. Hayden took Ulrich's place, and the three of them ran.

"Guys, jump off the platform behind you, the tower is North-Northwest from your position."

"And there's something to land on below?" asked Odd, running to the edge.

"Obviously." said Jeremy.

Odd, Aelita, and Hayden all jumped off the edge of the plateau, and fell through the clouds below.

Ulrich, Yumi, and Seth stayed behind to deal with the Hornets. Yumi ran in one direction, and Ulrich ran in another. Seth stayed still, pulling out his rifle.

Yumi flipped and jumped to avoid the laser bolts of the flying Hornets, and threw her fans to destroy some of them. Ulrich ran up a nearby mountain wall using his super-sprint, and pushed off, slicing through another swarm as he flew through the air. Seth just pointed his rifle and fired, every time he tried focusing, the Hornets would try shooting him, and Seth would have to jump out-of-the-way to avoid losing life points.

So far, he hadn't been very successful. Without being able to aim, the rifle was almost as useless as a pea shooter against the swarm. Seth holstered the rifle, and clenched his fists instead. His hand blades popped out of a small slot in his glove, and Seth changed tactics. He ran up trees and boulders, hoping to be able to get close to a Hornets and slice its wings off. He got lucky and was able to slice the wings off the Hornets with no problem, once they hit the ground, Ulrich would run up, and kill the Hornet. One of them tried running into him when he jumped, trying to knock him out of the air and off the platform. Seth immediately focused in his mind on visualizing the Hornet going through him, and it did. The Hornet was surprised, and kept flying, right into a mountain, where it exploded.

Some of the swarm broke off from fighting them, and descended into the clouds to follow Hayden, Odd, and Aelita. Ulrich warned Jeremy, who relayed to the other group.

The group had free-fallen for what felt like minutes. Hayden saw the ground first, and braced for impact. He hit hard, and tried to roll to break his fall. But he ended up looking like a worm that had just grown bones, and his roll was awkward- it hurt.

Aelita and Odd fell soon after him, both landed on their bottoms. The Hornets arrived soon after they all landed. Odd grabbed Aelita, and ran after Hayden. Hayden told Odd to go with Aelita, and Odd nodded, and turned and ran to the tower. Hayden pulled out his pistol and started firing. The Hornets were very good at dodging at the last second. Hayden wasted an entire clip, and didn't hit a thing. He quickly reloaded, but he heard a shout.

Ulrich had jumped off the same platform above them, and was falling to meet everyone. Hayden thought quick, and using his grappling hook, he shot a hook a the mountain wall in front of him. He pulled the line taut, and Ulrich used his saber as a kind of zip line. The Hornets turned to shoot at Ulrich, but Hayden tugged on the line, and Ulrich bounced off, and was able to slice the Hornets on the way down to the ground, and then land back on the zip line, and reach the ground safely.

"Where's Yumi and Seth?" asked Hayden, as Ulrich touched down on the ground.

"Hornet's shot them, they didn't make it." said Ulrich with a frown.

Another swarm of Hornets came over the ridge, and Odd and Aelita called out as they were busy dealing with a Tarantula that was blocking the way to the tower. Hayden pulled his grappling hook free from the mountain wall, and was about to put it away when he got an idea. He told Ulrich to go help Odd and Aelita with their spider problem. Ulrich ran off, and Hayden got down to business. Using his other hand, Hayden twirled the grappling hook like a chained mace. Every time a Hornet got near, Hayden would wave it off, and if it got close enough, Hayden would hook it, and slam it into the ground so it would explode. He felt very proud of his new discovery. He had fun protecting the group from the Hornets by pretending he was in one of his favorite kung-fu movies. He swung it in wide arcs around, and was actually very good at it.

Once the Hornets were gone, Hayden ran to help Odd, Ulrich, and Aelita. The Tarantula had them pinned down, and they were unable to move towards the tower. Ulrich tried running out, but was forced back under heavy fire. Then Odd would try to go out when the Tarantula was distracted, but it was too fast, and Odd had to retreat as well. Hayden ran up to Ulrich.

"What's the situation?" asked Hayden.

"Not good, if we can't get through this Tarantula..." said Ulrich, sticking his head out from around the wall, "...X.A.N.A is going to launch another return to the past. Jeremy just told me X.A.N.A is doing this to increase his power, every time we return to the past, the supercomputer increases in power. He's even been able to possess people now!" Ulrich tried to make a move.

"So that's why Sissi's acting like more of a brat than she normally is!" shouted Hayden over the barrage of shots the Tarantula fired at Ulrich.

"Let me handle this!" said Hayden when Ulrich ran back to the rock he was hiding behind.

"What do you think you can do that we haven't tried already?" asked Ulrich.

"Stealth." said Hayden simply, and he vanished from sight in front of Ulrich.

Hayden snuck out from behind the rock, invisible, and ran up to the Tarantula. Hayden flashed in front of the Tarantula for a second, and he blew a raspberry. The Tarantula tried to shoot Hayden, but the fourteen year old vanished again, running to the other side of the Tarantula. Hayden flashed visible all around the Tarantula, confusing it. Once the Tarantula was thoroughly confused, Hayden used his grappling hook, and started tying up its arms. Once he had the arms tied up and immobilized, Hayden used what was left of his grappling rope, to hog-tie the arms of the Tarantula to its legs, and pushed it off the edge of the platform. Hayden cut the rope right at the last second, using his wrist blade, and the Tarantula fell into the digital sea, with a large explosion, and a column of brilliantly bright light from where it fell.

"Madam, your tower awaits." said Hayden with a bow to Aelita. Aelita and Odd ran out from behind the rock and Aelita giggled.

"Thank you my knight in cream-colored armor." she said as she ran to the building.

Aelita reached the tower just in time to stop X.A.N.A from taking control of the jump in time again that day. Everyone sighed a breath of relief after they got back. Sissi hadn't remembered a thing, and Herb and Nicholas were easily thrown off the scent of their secret by convincing them that the factory was haunted by pounding on the pipes, and having some of them fake ghostly wails.

The next day, everyone went on their business as usual. Seth decided to pull one more trick on Herb and Nicholas. In the middle of the night, Seth got up and turned the thermostat down for most of the boy's dorms. Seth snuck back to his shared room, and put the hot water bottle under his bed, and another one under Hayden's to keep them from freezing. He put on the relaxing music for him and Hayden to listen to, instead of chattering teeth which they could hear. Seth even let a couple of drops of lavender oil out into the air. Seth quickly texted Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy to tell them to put on a sweater. Feeling relaxed, Seth slipped into his bed and rested his eyes until he fell asleep.

His nightmares felt weird and warped. Seth was in the courtroom again. Seth went to raise his hand to point at Brock, but it felt like he was swimming in syrup. Seth finally got his arm up, and opened his mouth. The relaxing music came out of his mouth! Brock laughed, his laughs were slow, and the laugh sounded warped. Brock seemed to be affected by the same thing Seth was experiencing. The jury members turned into the old gang members slowly, and their laughs were slow too. Seth looked down to see were laughing at, but Seth wasn't in his underwear. Instead, he had a thick belt on, and a nice shirt and tie, with a suit jacket. Seth liked this new dream.

The scene was slowly sucked away like the water out of a tub, and Seth found himself in the school courtyards. Hayden was walking towards Seth in slow-motion. Hayden saw Seth, and he waved in his, very slowly. Seth however seemed unaffected in this part of the dream, and he was able to walk up to Hayden, and pick him up and move him out-of-the-way before the shot came. The shot rang out, and the sound echoed. Seth felt like he was in the Matrix. The bullet whizzed past very slowly, and Seth could have picked it out of the air if he wanted to. Having saved his brother, Seth turned his attention to finding out who it was that had shot at Hayden. Seth calmly walked over to look at the man as he tried running away.

"You!" said Seth, recognizing the man behind the scruffy beard at last.

Next Chapter: "Xandra"

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Thanks to all of you who read my story! Sorry for the lapse in publishing- life, you know? Okay, this marks the beginning of the new story lines, send in any ideas you might have, and I'll do my best to write to them. Thanks to my beta reader, she is a savior to my writing.


	17. Xandra

Okay, I'm taking a break from the Code Lyoko story (I'll rejoin in a couple of chapters with 'Mr. Pück' and maybe 'Saint Valentines Day', after I figure out what I'm going to do for those chapters...) But for now I'm going to work on reader submissions for chapters they want to see with my OC's Seth and Hayden. I have about three to four ideas so far. I'll probably do about two chapters of this, then get back to the main story line like I said. Thank you to Redwolf11 for the idea. If you guys have any ideas you want to see, send me a PM with a short description of the chapter you want, and I'll write it!

Chapter 17: "Xandra"

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Seth woke up the next morning, a little anxious. After the nightmare he had last night, he hoped that his dream wasn't real. He had finally figured out who it was that shot Hayden. He almost wanted to tell his brother, but he knew that if he told him the truth, there would be lots of questions. Seth didn't want that. So Seth kept quiet about his nightmare. Seth had actually gotten a decent amount of sleep that night, so Hayden didn't pry him for answers because everything seemed just fine. Hayden just guessed Seth had finally gotten over his nightmares.

"So no more underwear?" joked Hayden as Seth came out of their bathroom that morning.

"No, I just got dressed, what are you talking about?" asked Seth, putting his dirty clothes in a hamper.

"I'm talking about your stupid nightmare with Brock, and you, and your underwear," said Hayden, trying to jog Seth's mind.

"Oh, right, that!" realized Seth, shifting uncomfortably.

"You're not still having them right?" asked Hayden, bending down to tie his shoes.

"No! No, no, I'm fine, honestly!" said Seth nervously, opening his wardrobe to hide his face from Hayden.

"Then why do you look I do when I am lying?" said Hayden, raising an eyebrow.

"Because..." said Seth, looking around frantically for an answer.

"Because why Seth? Are you lying to me?" asked Hayden, hopping off the bed to face Seth. Hayden slammed the wardrobe close and looked him down, despite being the same height. Seth cowered under his brother's gaze.

"No!" said Seth, "I just don't like you bringing it up, it's kind of embarrassing..."

"Okay," said Hayden, he left Seth alone. But he still could tell that Seth was hiding something from him.

Hayden and Seth got started on their dorm monitor jobs, waking up the boys in the dorm up, and monitoring the line for morning showers. Most of the boys that got up were shivering. Hayden raised an eyebrow at the strange turn of events that were already happening that day. A lot of the boys came up and started complaining to him about how cold it was last night. Hayden looked at the thermostat. They were right! The temperature was well below 5° C. Hayden turned up the temperature of the thermostat, and wondered who would have been so underhanded to pull a prank like that. Hayden didn't even know it was cold last night- his bed had been warmed by- then it hit him.

"Seth!" said Hayden, rounding on his heel to face Seth.

"Seth!" shouted Hayden. Seth jumped, and hid behind Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy, who were waiting in line for a shower.

"Where is he?" roared Hayden at the other boys.

"Define where and he. Perhaps in a kinder tone?" asked Odd, trying to calm Hayden down. It didn't work.

"Move!" said Hayden, pushing Odd and Ulrich out of the way to get to Seth.

"Seth! How could you? Did you know that a prank like that, especially one where someone could have frozen to death, could get us kicked out of our positions?" asked Hayden through strained teeth.

"I just- wanted to have fun?" said Seth, cowering under Hayden again.

"Fun?! Do you know how cold it is in here?" asked Hayden

"I don't know, but I'm getting a pretty icy reception now!" said Seth firing back.

"Don't you turn this on me!" said Hayden, "I'm going to let this one go, but if you ever pull something like this again, I'll be more than happy to turn you into Mr. Delmas!"

"You wouldn't dare!" shouted Seth.

"Try...me..." said Hayden, poking a finger into his clone's chest.

"Whoa-but!" said Seth, trying to come to grips with Hayden's sudden threat.

The lights cut out suddenly, throwing the hall, and everyone in it, into darkness. Some of the boys screamed, others shouted as others stepped on their toes. Hayden tried to find the light switch in the dark. Hayden found it, and flicked it both ways. Nothing happened.

"Great..." said Hayden under his breath. Hayden pulled out a small radio out of his jacket and turned it on. Both had been given radios, and told to use them only in a case of an emergency. Hayden figured this qualified.

"Jim, come in Jim! Hayden calling Jim!" said Hayden, over the chaos of the hallway they were in. Hayden could hear rock music, and he figured Jim was working out.

"Jim here! What's up Michaels?" said Jim between grunts.

"Jim, the lights are out in the boy's dorm, can you check the fuse box?" asked Hayden.

"The lights are also out in the girl's dorm as well!" said Claire radioing from downstairs. Some of the girls were screaming at her while she was trying to radio Jim.

"Wow, really?" said Jim, "Let me check." Hayden could hear Jim walk to the main fuse box for the school, and open it up.

"You're right Michaels, and you too Girard, the fuses for both floors are tripped, hang on." said Jim.

"Can you fix it?" asked Hayden, trying to quiet the boys as they turned from cries of fear, to cries of anger.

"Yeah, we have a couple extra fuses here." said Jim. The teacher removed the blown fuses and put the two new ones in. When Jim put in the second, he got fried, and Hayden heard it over the radio.

He shouted, "Jim! Jim! You okay?!"

The lights came back on, and the boys cheered.

Jim came on the radio half a second later, "Yeah, I've had worse working- at the power company before!" Jim slurred.

"You worked at the power company Jim?" asked Claire.

"I'd...rather not talk about it!" said Jim, "Do you guys smell bacon?"

Hayden laughed, clicking off the radio and put it back in his pocket. The morning showers carried on as usual. Hayden and Seth were about to go to breakfast, when a girl in a light-weight black pea coat, and a red blouse, and green Capri pants, and black flats walked into the boy's dorm hallway. Her hair was jet black, short, and pulled back from her face with barrettes. She held in her hands a large suitcase with a lot of stickers from other countries on it. The girl brushed a small strand of hair out of her face and behind her ears, and looked around.

"Can I help you?" asked Hayden. He was standing in the doorway.

"Yes, I'm looking for the girl's dormitories." said she, looking at Hayden. Her accent sounded very foreign. If Hayden had to guess, he would have said Italian.

"Those are downstairs, you just missed them on the way up." said Hayden, trying to be nice, "You just move here?" asked Hayden, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Yes, today actually!" said the girl with a smile.

"That's strange, Mr. Delmas didn't tell us about any new arrivals, not until next week, before the break." said Hayden, picking up a clipboard from inside his room, and looking it over.

"I am new...yes?" she said, her understanding of the language seemed broken.

"Yes, very new, I don't have you on my list!" said Hayden slowly.

"Mr.- Delmas!" she said, remembering the name of the principal, "Just approved me, he said to move into the dorms and tell you I was here. My name is Xandra!" said Xandra, sticking out her hand for a handshake.

"I'll have to talk to Mr. Delmas about this." said Hayden, but he shook her hand anyway. Seth stuck his head out of their room, and looked at the new girl. He elbowed Hayden in the ribs and whispered.

"Dude, who's the new girl?" Xandra looked at Seth, brushing her hair out to shake Seth's hand. Seth reached for it, and Xandra suddenly dropped her suitcase and pulled Seth close in a kind of hug, and then she gave him a kiss near each ear. When she let go, Seth blushed.

"Whoa! What was that?" asked Hayden, taken aback at the sudden show of affection.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot, most people are not accustomed to greeting of my country." said Xandra, blushing.

"It's not a problem Hayden, I liked it." said Seth in a dreamy tone.

"That's not the point, it's just, people aren't used to that around here." said Hayden to Xandra, trying to still be friendly.

"Did I offend you because I did not greet you the same way?" asked Xandra, "I can greet you if you want- Howard was it?" she added, sticking out her hand out again.

Now Hayden was in a foul mood, "Hayden, but no thanks. I like my personal space."

"Let's see if we have a room free for you, Miss-?" said Hayden, asking her for her last name.

"Leonardo." said Miss Leonardo.

"Right, let's see if we have a room for you Miss Xandra Leonardo." said Hayden, picking up her suitcase.

"Oh, please, don't I can carry my luggage." said Xandra, trying to stop Hayden.

"You pack light!" said Hayden, it was true, he could have lifted it above his head if he wanted.

"No, you are just so strong!" said Xandra, Hayden could tell she was trying to flirt with him.

"Besides, you need to check your clipboard, have this charming boy here carry my bags." she said, pointing to Seth, "He's so cute!"

"Yes, I guess he is..." said Hayden raising an eyebrow. He didn't understand, Hayden looked exactly like Seth, yet she acted like Hayden wasn't there.

"What is your name young man?" asked Xandra.

"Seth," answered Seth in a distracted tone.

"Well, it is nice to meet you Seth!" said Xandra, handing him her bag.

"Okay, let's find you a room, and breakfast starts at seven-thirty, and dinner is at seven as well. Students are not allowed in their rooms from eight to four-thirty, and must be in their rooms by ten. Lights out is always at ten-thirty, and wake up is at six forty-five for the boys, and six for the girls. Do you have all that? Or do you need me to write that down?" asked Hayden, a little miffed.

"No, I think I will get that." said Xandra, smiling.

"Wait, I feel like I'm forgetting something." said Hayden, looking around the hallway.

"What? Did you forget to tell me something important?" asked Xandra, looking at Hayden's clipboard.

"No, I feel like I'm forgetting someone- Seth!" Hayden realized that this whole time that Seth hadn't been following them. He ran back up to the boy's dorms and found him still standing outside their room, holding Xandra's bag.

"Seth! What are you still doing here? Seth, hello?!" Hayden waved a hand in front of Seth's face.

Seth snapped out of his daze, "Isn't Xandra just awesome?" he asked.

"Awesome isn't the word I would use." said Hayden, he looked around to see if Xandra had followed him, but he didn't see the attractive Italian girl. "More like creepy, she shows up the morning after a big blowout in the power, and she isn't even on the list of new residents." said Hayden, holding up the clipboard for Seth to see.

"Maybe she was just approved. If she was, Delmas wouldn't have had the time to tell us she was coming." said Seth.

"Delmas usually tells us when he's considering letting a new student stay here. These things take time, and Delmas lets us know if someone is getting close." said Hayden.

"Maybe Delmas is letting her stay here while things are sorted out, Aelita was able to stay a couple of days to see if it would work out for her, and that she would work out for the school." said Seth. He did have a good point. Delmas had let Aelita stay at Kadic for about a week after classes ended last semester, once Jeremy had materialized her, so she had a place to stay. She was able to stay before all the students went home.

"Well, I still don't like the circumstances, plus her sudden attraction to you." said Hayden. When Hayden brought up the 'greeting' that Xandra gave Seth, he was surprised to see his clone get hostile.

"You're just jealous she kissed me, and not you!" yelled Seth.

"Jealous? Me? No, I just find it weird that she did kiss you and not me." said Hayden. "I think that-"

"See!? You are jealous!" shouted Seth.

"Is there a problem boys?" asked Xandra, coming back up the stairs to see where Hayden had went.

"No, Hayden here was just leaving in fact." said Seth, snatching the clipboard out of Hayden's hand and marching off. "Let's see if we can find you a room far away from here." said Seth, venomously directing his words over his shoulder.

"Great, I was almost late for breakfast anyway." said Hayden. He felt a little crushed after Seth brushed him off like that. Hayden went the other way, and left the dorms. He entered the cafeteria and grabbed a tray, sitting down with the rest of the group. Seth and Xandra came in not long after. Xandra was holding Seth's hand, and she was laughing at something he had just said.

"You are so funny Seth!" she squealed.

"That's what they call me!" he said. Hayden almost felt like he could gag.

Seth grabbed a tray from the pile, and handed it to Xandra. He then grabbed one for himself, and the two of them walked down the line. When they reached Rosa, she asked the attractive Italian what she wanted for breakfast. She was about to answer when Seth cut her off.

"The lady will have the french toast, scrambled eggs, the fruit, and a juice- apple." Seth rattled off. "Did I get that right?"

"Oh, Seth, you remembered!" she said, flashing a brilliant smile. Xandra almost looked like she could hug and kiss Seth again, and she did. Hayden didn't really feel like eating anymore.

"Hayd, go easy on your orange there, or you'll end up with juice on your eggs." said Ulrich. Hayden looked down at his hands, seeing Ulrich was right. He had his orange in a choke hold, and was about to squeeze the juice out through the skin. He let go.

"Sorry, I just-" said Hayden, burying his head in his hands.

"Who's the new girl Seth's hanging out with?" asked Aelita

"That is Xandra." said Hayden, his head was still bowed. "She just moved in today, and apparently has taken a liking to him." he added, a bit of acid in his voice

"I think liking is a soft word, more like full on love if you ask me!" said Jeremy, laughing.

"I'd like to see who she is." said Aelita, and she waved Seth and Xandra over. Seth went to walk towards the table, but when he saw Hayden he quickly walked the other way and sat at the next available table.

"Eh, leave him be, if he wants to make a fool of himself, let him go ahead." said Hayden, turning back around.

"But you guys are inseparable, ever since you guys started going here, you've never been apart!" said Odd through bites of his breakfast.

"Well, times change I guess, Seth's growing up, and so should I, I guess." said Hayden, standing up from his seat. He looked over to see Seth feeding Xandra a piece of her french toast, flashing a grin at him. Hayden didn't feel well.

Hayden left the cafeteria and Seth stumbled out soon after. Xandra wasn't with him.

"What? You're not with your new girlfriend!?" shouted Hayden to Seth.

"Whatever, you're just jealous I have a hot girlfriend, and- you don't." said Seth simply.

"Yeah, well-" started Hayden.

"See? Jealous." said Seth, and he walked away to go to their first class.

Hayden looked back into the cafeteria and saw a lot of the boys from school gathered around Xandra as she sat at her table. Ulrich and Odd were in the back of the group, but they forced their way through. They apparently introduced themselves because Xandra lit up and gave her 'greeting' to Odd. Ulrich however didn't let Xandra greet him, he turned red and looked over at Yumi who had just walked up. Hayden could tell Ulrich was thinking about what she would say if she saw him being kissed by a foreign girl.

"Who's the new girl?" asked Yumi, almost as on cue. Hayden jumped at Yumi's sudden appearance, he didn't know she had just gotten there.

"That is Xandra, she's new to Kadic, straight from Italy, and all the boys are smitten with her apparently." said Hayden, waving his hand out in front of him to point to all the boys.

"I can tell. So did you help her find a room? That's your job isn't it?" she asked.

"That's another problem, the boys are all smitten with her, but the only boy Xandra likes is Seth." said Hayden, his anger rising again.

"And not you? You guys are so similar, how could she choose one over the other?" said Yumi, trying to mess with Hayden.

"Well, apparently she doesn't like me, and has flipped over Seth, and Seth has flipped over Xandra." said Hayden, "I expect to hear about their wedding almost any day now, but I don't think I'll be invited, so keep an eye on your mail, I'll just try to go with one of you guys." said Hayden, glumly.

"Why all this sudden hostility?" asked Yumi, she could tell that even trying to make Hayden laugh wasn't going to help him here.

"Well, with Xandra around now, Seth doesn't need me- plus, we had an argument this morning, and it got heated." said Hayden, they began walking to their first class.

"What was it about?" asked Yumi, shifting gears on her tactics.

"Seth pulled a prank on the boy's dorm last night. He turned down the thermostat in the dorms, and made everyone freeze last night." said Hayden.

"That's not cool- no pun intended." said Yumi, when she noticed the look Hayden was giving her.

"Yeah, I told him if he ever pulled a stunt like that again, I was going to report him to Mr. Delmas." sighed Hayden.

"That's a low blow, two people, who aren't necessarily brothers, but as close aa brothers-" said Yumi in a whisper, not wanting other people to hear what they were talking about, "-such as you guys, that couldn't have gone over well."

"No, it didn't, but I didn't get a chance to apologize because next thing I knew, the lights went out, and then Xandra showed up, and Seth started hanging all over her instead of just hanging out with me." said Hayden.

"You need to talk to him then, tell him how you really feel." said Yumi.

"You're right, the next time I see him, we'll talk." said Hayden, his spirits lifting a bit after talking.

They reached their first class, and there was Seth. He was smiling, and looked happy. Hayden thought he could talk to Seth like he planned, but then he saw Xandra sitting next to Seth, and Hayden was done wanting to talk. He took a seat in the back, and Yumi sat next to him.

"Well, so much for talking!" she whispered.

"I saw Xandra and panicked I guess, I wanted to talk to Seth, not 'Sethdra'" said Hayden, making excuses.

"Whatever, you still need to talk to him, this won't get any better if you hold it in." said Yumi.

"Okay- Dr. Phil." said Hayden sourly, he was done with Yumi trying to help him solve his own problems.

Yumi was taken aback, and she moved away from Hayden to sit near William. Hayden sighed in defeat. It seemed like nothing was going his way today. The group met up again for lunch, and Seth and Xandra sat apart from the rest of the group again. Seth fended off the other boys who gathered to try and ogle her, claiming Xandra as his own. Odd sat down next to Hayden, and he heaved a large sigh.

"Isn't she beautiful?" asked Odd, he didn't even touch his food.

"Who, Sam? The girl you like?" asked Yumi, "She's okay I guess."

"Sam!? No, I'm talking about Xandra!" said Odd. Hayden spit out his water suddenly, soaking Jeremy and Aelita while they were in the middle of their own conversation.

"What?! You told me you like Sam! Not Xandra! When did you suddenly start liking Xandra?!" shouted Hayden.

"This morning- after breakfast." said Odd in a dreamy tone.

"What happened after breakfast?" asked Yumi.

"That's when I met Xandra! She obviously loves me, otherwise she wouldn't have kissed me!" said Odd.

"That's just how she greets everyone Odd." said Hayden.

"Not me, she kissed me, and now I can't get her out of my mind." sighed Odd, "Her black hair, her blue eyes as deep as the ocean, and her smile!"

Yumi felt up Odd's forehead to make sure he wasn't sick.

"He doesn't have a fever." she concluded.

"Of course I don't have a fever, the only thing that burns is my heart, and it burns for Xandra!" shouted Odd, standing up on the table.

"Odd! Get down from there before people start looking at you!" yelled Aelita, pulling at Odd's purple pants to try and get him down.

"I won't, not until Xandra knows how I really feel about her!" said Odd, jumping off the table, and landing near Seth and Xandra.

Xandra gasped, and Seth looked at Odd with a look of pure anger. Odd stood up and pointed at Xandra.

"My lady, I am Odd Della Robbia, and I will fight this Lothario to win your love for me!" said Odd, pointing to Seth.

"Oh yeah shorty? Bring it on!" shouted Seth, and he stood up from his chair.

Odd jumped for Seth, and the clone held him off. He knocked Odd over, and the blonde dragged Seth down with him. The two of them went at it on the floor, punching, kicking, and even biting each other to win.

"Stop it! Stop it! Break it up!" shouted Yumi, jumping up to break Seth and Odd apart. Hayden sprang up too, and grabbed Odd. Yumi grabbed Seth

"Unhand me good sir! I am fighting to win the love of the fair lady Xandra!" shouted Odd, trying to claw his way back into the fight.

"What has gotten into you two?!" asked Yumi, grabbing Seth by the collar and pushing the two of them apart so they couldn't fight anymore.

"This man says he loves my fair maiden Xandra, but he does not show it!" said Odd, pointing to his 'opponent'.

"Oh yeah, I love her plenty thank you!" Seth shot back, struggling against Yumi to try and snap Odd's neck.

"HEY!" shouted Yumi, "Cut- it- out!" she shouted, and she pushed Odd and Seth away from each other again.

"That was very brave of you- Odd Della Robbia, but I already have a knight in black armor." said Xandra with her accent, standing up and looking at Seth. She kissed Odd on the mouth, and waved at him as she walked away from Odd with Seth. Yumi sighed and she and Hayden walked back to the table and sat down.

Odd stood there dumbfounded for a moment, then shook his head like a bee had stung him. He looked around and then spotted the rest of the group. He smiled and looked around again, and then walked over.

"What happened? Last thing I remember is meeting Xandra after breakfast, but now it's lunch time!" said Odd in a low tone to the group, "Did I space out during another one of Mrs. Hertz's classes again?"

"What are you talking about Odd, you just got in a fight with Seth and you honestly say you can't remember it?" said Aelita, incredulously

"No, did I win?" asked Odd, perking up.

"You want to know if you won a fight against Seth? Shouldn't you be worried that you could have just hurt Seth, or that Seth just hurt you?" asked Hayden

"Now that you mention it, my arm is a little sore." said Odd, rolling his shoulder.

"Okay Odd, I'm not in the mood for jokes now, you're serious when you say you don't remember what has happened in the last four hours, not even what just happened where you jumped up on the table, shouted your love for Xandra, and then jumped off and challenged Seth to a duel?" said Hayden

"I said I loved Xandra?! But, I like Sam! You know, you think that I would remember something like that." said Odd, lowering his head to think.

"Something's not right here." said Jeremy, folding his arms, "Hayden, what happened before Xandra showed up this morning?"

"Well, Seth and I had an argument." started Hayden

"No, no, after that!" said Jeremy, getting impatient.

"Okay, well, everyone was taking showers, and then the lights went out."

"Wait, the lights went out?" asked Jeremy for clarification, leaning forward in surprise.

"Yeah, you were there weren't you?" asked Hayden

"I usually close my eyes and block out everything while taking a shower- that's usually when I think." said Jeremy, a little embarrassed.

"Einstein, when do you ever stop thinking?" asked Ulrich with a smirk.

"So the lights went out, and then Xandra showed up?" asked Jeremy, brushing Ulrich off.

"Yeah, not too long after."

"I think something funny is going on here, I don't think Xandra is really who she says she is." said Jeremy.

"You think she was possessed by X.A.N.A?" asked Aelita.

"No, I think we'd be able to tell if X.A.N.A had possessed her, I think X.A.N.A created her, like a polymorphic specter." said Jeremy.

"Polymorphic- what? Jeremy, you're not making sense." said Hayden

"A Polymorphic specter. X.A.N.A can create a realistic image of a person that can take the form of anyone X.A.N.A chooses, even people he might have seen before he was confined to the supercomputer. They take a lot of power, and cutting the power to a couple levels of the dorms might give him the energy he would need." said Jeremy.

"You think that Xandra is actually X.A.N.A, and that he's using her form because he's seen her before?" asked Yumi.

"It would explain it more than she's just overly attractive, and can cause boys to fight over her by just looking at them." said Jeremy. Aelita shot him a look and Jeremy whispered an apology. "We need to be sure though, and if Xandra really is X.A.N.A. then we need proof before we go telling Mr. Delmas, or even off to Lyoko to stop her if needs be." said Jeremy.

"What kind of proof do we need, Jeremy?" asked Odd.

"We need to see who it is that X.A.N.A has copied, and for that we'll need a photo. Then I can run a search based on her facial features. And then we need to find out what she- he- I mean- we just need to find out what the plan is before it's too late." said Jeremy, a little flustered.

"Leave the photo to me, Xandra might get suspicious if she sees any of you guys trying to take her picture from the ground, but I can get another- angle, so to speak." said Hayden.

"And we can talk to Xandra." said Yumi to Odd and Ulrich.

"Just be sure she doesn't 'greet' you, I think that's how she's getting all the boys to fall over her like they are." said Ulrich, remembering what happened right before Odd went crazy.

"I'll go to the factory with Aelita and run a scan, if X.A.N.A cut the power before activating a tower, then the super scanner on my computer wouldn't have picked it up, and my laptop died last night because Odd forgot to plug it in after he borrowed it." said Jeremy, giving a look to Odd.

"Hey, it's not my fault Einstein, how was I to know that using all those programs was going to kill the battery?" said Odd defensively.

"I did- what were you trying to do anyway?" asked Jeremy

"My new movie! It's a real hit, if I do say so myself." said Odd.

"Guys! We're wasting time, and while we're talking, Xandra could be off doing who knows what to Seth!" said Yumi.

"Right! Hayden, get us that picture, then bring it over to me at the factory. I'll run a search." said Jeremy. Hayden nodded and ran off in the direction of the dorms. "Yumi, Ulrich and Odd, go see if you can get anything out of Xandra. If she really is a polymorphic specter, then we can be sure that she doesn't have anything good planned for Seth." The three of them nodded, and ran off to look for said boy.

"You and I need to get over to the factory and run a scan!" finished Jeremy, grabbing hold of Aelita's hand and running to the passage in the park.

Hayden reached the dorms and saw Jim coming down the steps, whistling a tune. Hayden might have been dorm monitor, but there was still no excuse for being in them when it was time for classes. Hayden thought quickly and ran up one of the arches outside the dorm. From there, Hayden scaled the outside of the dorms until he found an open window on the second floor. Hayden ducked inside and looked around. He was in Sissi's room! Hayden didn't want to get in trouble, but he took a quick look around to see if she left anything lying around that could be used later as ammo for embarrassment.

Hayden opened the wardrobe and started looking through it. He didn't find much- clothes, undergarments, make up products. Then Hayden saw a few photos that Sissi had taped up on her clothes bar. One was a picture of Mr. Delmas and Sissi, and Mr. Delmas was giving a younger Sissi a piggy back ride. The next was a picture of Mr. Delmas at a party, apparently passed out after having a little too much champagne, covered in confetti, and blowing a noise maker. The last was another picture of Mr. Delmas, dressed up in a penguin suit, lined up in a conga line, dancing with three other people he didn't know.

"This is too good!" whispered Hayden. He knew it didn't have anything to do with Sissi, but it gave Hayden some interesting stories to tell the group later about Principal Delmas.

Hayden closed the wardrobe again, and opened the door to Sissi's room quietly. He took a look around, and then bolted for the stairs. Hayden reached his room with no more problems. He dug through his drawers until he found a small digital camera. Hayden also grabbed a pair of finger-less gloves and pulled them on. Hayden figured he was ready now. He opened the window to his room and looked out. He could see Yumi, Ulrich and Odd running around in the courtyard, looking for Seth. Hayden decided to get a higher view. He vaulted out of the window, and grabbed on to the window sill. Using his arms, he pulled himself up on the roof, Hayden stood on one of the tall spires of the dorms, hanging on the lightning rod. Hayden looked out across the campus of the school. He thought he wasn't going to see anything, but then he saw them- Xandra and Seth were walking in the park, near the garden shed.

Hayden leaned back towards the courtyard and gave a loud whistle, something his father said that he inherited from his mother. Yumi heard him, and she looked up to where Hayden stood, on the roof of the dormitories. Hayden waved at them, and pointed towards the garden shed, Odd could barely make out Seth and Xandra as they stood near the door. Odd gave Hayden a thumbs up, and he got together with Ulrich and Yumi, and they ran towards the shed. Hayden rushed down the ridge of the roof, and vaulted off, into the nearest tree. Hayden felt branches whip past him as he entered the tree. He landed on one of the branches. Hayden gasped in pain. He stood there crouched for a second, blinking away tears. This hadn't been the first time he had experienced a hard landing like this before, so Hayden stood back up and tested his legs. They felt fine, and so Hayden continued on.

He jumped through the trees, but as he neared Seth and Xandra, he took to only crawling across branches so he didn't make as much noise. He picked a tree with as much leaves as he could find, which was hard, since it was the middle of October. Hayden spied on Seth and Xandra from between branches and lined up his camera for a shot at Xandra's face. He could hear Seth and Xandra talking, so he reached in his pocket and pulled out his personal music player. The player had a record feature, and had served Hayden well for this exact purpose. He put an ear bud in his ear and turned up the volume and pointed the small microphone at Seth and Xandra. The audio was faint, but he could hear them talking.

"-your brother doesn't seem to like you much." said Xandra, drawing close to Seth.

"No, we just had an argument today before you showed up." said Seth, turning slightly away from Xandra.

"Well, that sounds like someone who doesn't like you very much then." said Xandra, Hayden had a sinking feeling that she was buttering him up to betray any secrets he might have.

"No, he likes me, like a brother almost even."

"Aren't you guys brothers?" asked Xandra, raising an eyebrow.

"Um- yeah, we are, but it doesn't seem like it sometimes." said Seth.

"_Good on you Seth!_" thought Hayden. Even with Seth's mind not completely there, he was still thinking about their secret.

"Are you hiding something from me?" asked Xandra innocently, "You know you can trust me." Xandra stuck out her lip and acted sad to try and guilt her boyfriend into telling her.

"I don't know I mean- I just met you today, and I don't know what my friends would say-"

"You mean the boy who fought you today over me?" said Xandra, probably trying to turn Seth against Odd.

Yumi and the others finally caught up to Hayden. He saw them trying to sneak up on the uneasy couple. Hayden got Yumi's attention, and waved them off.

"Go...to...the...factory...help...Jeremy!" mouthed Hayden. Hayden quickly snapped a picture of Xandra and threw the camera to Yumi. Yumi caught the camera and gave a thumbs up and ran off with Ulrich and Odd.

Xandra started talking again, "These people you call friends, don't really seem to be friends."

"Well, I don't know if I can call you a friend, I mean I just-" said Seth

Xandra cut him off, "But I haven't argued with you, or fought you today."

"But we're arguing right now!" said Seth, he tried backing away, but Xandra grabbed him and pinned him against the wall of the shed.

"Wow, you're really strong!" said Seth, trying to slip away from Xandra.

"And now you're going to tell me what you are hiding from me!" screeched Xandra. Her beauty was no longer there, instead replaced with fury.

"I think I'll be going..." said Seth, trying to walk away.

Xandra calmed herself, and then leaned in and tried to kiss Seth. Seth backed away, trying to avoid Xandra. Xandra gave Seth a look of disgust and then wrenched his face around to face hers. Xandra leaned in and kissed him. Seth seemed to relax, and Hayden knew this wasn't going well anymore. Seth stood up straight and Xandra let go of him.

"Now!" sighed Xandra, brushing hair out of her face, "We can get down to business!"

"_Oh no!_" thought Hayden, "_He's going to blow everything!_" He didn't show himself yet, he didn't know quite what X.A.N.A had in store for Seth.

"Seth Michaels, are you a real person?" asked Xandra, pacing back and forth.

"No." said Seth in a trance-like state, "I am a clone of Hayden Michaels."

"Good!" said Xandra, her look was of pure malicious evil, mixed with excitement. It didn't suit someone like her.

"I gotta stop this!" thought Hayden, "But how?!" Just then, his cell phone went off. Xandra's gaze shot up into the tree he was in. Hayden tried silencing his phone, but it was too late.

"Who's there?!" said Xandra, looking through the fall leaves, she spotted Hayden trying to blend into the trunk of the tree he was standing in, "You!" she shouted, and Hayden leapt from the tree and rolled to break his fall.

"Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?" asked Hayden, pointing a finger at Xandra.

Xandra laughed, her laugh was cold and sent shivers down Hayden's spine. Soon, the laugh warped, and the evil laugh of Xandra was soon replaced with the downright malicious laugh of an older man.

"Isn't it obvious, Hayden Michaels?" said Xandra with X.A.N.A's voice, "I'm the dark, the thing that goes 'bump' in the night- and your worst nightmare..." finished X.A.N.A with an evil stare.

"I'm not afraid of you, I've fought worse than you before!" said Hayden, trying to show courage.

"Oh, but I don't want to fight you, because you see, ever since I saw you two fighting among yourselves the first time you came to Lyoko, I was intrigued with you Hayden Michaels, and your 'brother' Seth." said X.A.N.A in a mocking tone, pointing a finger at Seth, then right at Hayden's heart.

"I wondered what had to be done to get you two to turn on each other again, this was a very interesting question to me. What would I have to do to turn two people who are exactly the same against each other, and make them fight like common enemies?" said X.A.N.A.

"I figured it would be as simple as throwing a wedge between the two of you, an attractive girl should do the trick." said X.A.N.A, he sounded like he was almost gloating over Hayden.

"I've seen the way you two look at Aelita and Yumi, there's something more than friendship there, so I figured Seth would be no different." finished X.A.N.A., quite smug.

"You're wrong!" shouted Hayden, "Seth and I are no more alike than you and I are alike!" said Hayden, pointing to X.A.N.A. "And Yumi and Aelita are just good friends, nothing more!"

"Where have I heard that one before?" asked X.A.N.A in a mock tone. Xandra's head morphed into that of Ulrich's and he spoke with Ulrich's voice, "Yumi and I are just good friends, that's all."

Xandra's head morphed again, this time to Yumi, "Ulrich and I are just good friends that's all." Xandra morphed between Yumi and Ulrich, and the others of their group, he repeated the line over and over in Yumi and Ulrich's overlapping voices, and then with his voice, and Aelita's, and then Jeremy's and everyone else in the group. Hayden covered his ears and cowered, he couldn't stand to listen anymore! X.A.N.A walked right up to Hayden as he cowered on the ground. He morphed his head back to that of Xandra's and then spoke in his cold voice.

"You and I are not alike? Oh, that is where you are wrong, Hayden Michaels, we both want to see someone else dead. For me, it's you brats! And for you, I'm sure there's many things you'd want to do to me now." Hayden's anger grew, and he launched himself at Xandra. Hayden passed right through her, and out the other side. Hayden stumbled and caught himself before he fell completely.

"Tsk, tsk, Hayden, you ought to know better!" said X.A.N.A, waving a hand through Xandra's spectral body.

"Now listen to me, we both want to see the continuation of ourselves, and the well being of the people around us." said X.A.N.A in a sickly sweet voice. Xandra strode up to Seth and brushed a hand across his cheek.

"You leave him alone!" said Hayden, getting to his feet. He ran at Xandra and punched and swung at X.A.N.A with all his might, X.A.N.A dodged and weaved away from Hayden's fists.

"We both want what's best for us, and for me, it's seeing that you don't see the light of day. I won't fight you, but I know someone who will be glad to do so." said X.A.N.A, pointing at Seth.

"He's been itching all day to get a piece of you, and if you thought that the show with Odd was bad, you haven't seen anything yet!" X.A.N.A called out.

Seth turned and looked at Hayden with cold eyes. Hayden was already exhausting himself, but Seth was ready to go. Seth moved with such speed that Hayden hadn't seen before. Hayden figured he was getting energy from X.A.N.A himself. Hayden ducked under Seth's fist and backed away quickly. Seth followed, powerless to resist. Hayden's phone rang as he tried to run away.

"Now's not a good time Jeremy!" shouted Hayden. He ran at a tree and Seth followed. Hayden ran up it tree and flipped over Seth's head, running the opposite way. Seth punched the tree, and the bark splintered under his impressive blow.

"I just wanted to know how you were doing fighting against X.A.N.A's specter." said Jeremy, listening to Hayden pant.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Hayden threw the phone at Xandra as he ran up to her, trying to distract her, but it didn't work. She caught the phone instead and put it up to her ear.

"Hello Jeremy Belpois, how is your day going? Mine's just peachy!" said X.A.N.A with a twisted sense of humor.

"X.A.N.A!" shouted Jeremy, and Xandra pulled the phone away from her ear in response.

"It's about time we talked!" said X.A.N.A, putting the phone back up to his ear.

"I have nothing to say to you!" said Jeremy, and Xandra lowered the phone.

"Hayden, your friend won't listen to me. Here, you talk to him!" whined X.A.N.A, and he threw the phone back to Hayden. Hayden barely caught it as he flipped over Seth again, feeling exhausted.

"Jeremy! Please tell me you have good news!" said Hayden, dodging lightning fast punches from Seth.

"Umm- not really?" said Jeremy in more of a question than an answer.

"You have to have something!" shouted Hayden.

"Umm- put me on speaker and hand me to Seth!" said Jeremy suddenly.

"How's that going to help?!"

"Just do it! Trust me!"

Hayden pulled the phone away from his ear. Seth wound up to punch Hayden, and Hayden stuck out his hand with the phone with it. He pushed a button on the front and smiled at Seth.

"Here! It's for you!" said Hayden.

Seth looked confused, but took the phone anyway. Hayden turned and ran. The phone issued a loud burst of static, and Seth dropped the phone and held his ears. Xandra held her ears too. Hayden couldn't even stop himself from holding his ears under the assault on his eardrums. The three of them shouted, and then Seth fell to the ground, followed by Xandra, then Hayden.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Jeremy's voice from Hayden's phone. Hayden stirred, stood up, and picked up his phone of the ground.

"We're okay Jeremy, well- at least I am." said Hayden, looking at Seth and Xandra.

Seth stirred and woke up. He looked at Hayden, then launched himself of the ground and ran for his brother.

"Jeremy! I thought you said this would work!" said Hayden, running from Seth again.

"I thought it would too!" shouted Jeremy back to Hayden.

"It didn't! Seth's still attacking me! I think he might actually kill me!"

"NO! Don't let him!" shouted Jeremy

"Why? Will something bad happen?"

"Umm- did Seth not tell you?"

"Tell me what Jeremy? What is my brother not telling me?"

"Umm- nothing, if he didn't want to tell you, neither will I!"

"Jeremy!" Hayden complained, feeling like he could almost growl.

Seth caught up to Hayden at last. He jumped on his back and threw his weight into Hayden's back and knees, and caused him to collapse in a heap on the grass. Seth knocked the phone out of Hayden's hand and towered over him. Seth looked like he was about to punch Hayden senseless. Seth looked over his shoulder at Xandra who just got up. X.A.N.A smiled as he saw Seth cowering over Hayden.

"Yes! Do it!" shouted X.A.N.A

"Hold on I'm going to try again!" shouted Jeremy on the phone, "Cover your ears!"

Unfortunately this time, everyone covered their ears, and so the burst of static didn't work for anyone. Seth thought the burst was over, and uncovered his ears. He uncovered just as Jeremy sent another blast through the small speaker on the phone. Seth collapsed and fell on top of Hayden. The burst stopped and Xandra uncovered her ears, Hayden did the same. He could feel Seth breathing as he laid on top of him.

"Seth?" whispered Hayden so X.A.N.A wouldn't hear him.

"Shut up and lay still, I have a plan." hissed Seth.

"Will I like this plan?" asked Hayden, he already had a feeling about the 'plan'.

"Umm- let's say I like the plan and leave it at that." hissed Seth.

"What-?" asked Hayden. Seth shot up and began wailing away on Hayden, or so it seemed. Seth moved so fast so that it looked like he was punching Hayden, but in all actuality, Seth was punching the ground.

"Play along!" hissed Seth, and Hayden started grunting and shouting like he was actually being punched.

Seth gave one last punch to Hayden's nose, and Hayden thought that he heard it break.

"Ow! Seth, you broke my- I mean..." said Hayden as he realized that X.A.N.A was still there. He changed gears and said, "You- you!"

X.A.N.A finished for him, "You ruthless genius? You maniacal master? You adept champion?" X.A.N.A almost seemed to laugh as Seth lifted Hayden up by the collar and brought him in front of X.A.N.A. Seth winked at Hayden, and then stood next to Xandra.

"No, I was going to say you daft imbecile!" said Seth, and wound up to punch Xandra.

"What?" X.A.N.A. exclaimed as Xandra crumpled to the ground.

"Seth!" gasped Hayden, a little nasally because of the broken nose and the blood, "I mean, way to go man!" X.A.N.A groaned and sat up, rubbing Xandra's head.

"You see X.A.N.A, there's one thing you failed to account for. I love my brother, and we are nothing alike. And although he may be a pain at times, he the closest thing I have to a friend, a brother, and family!" said Seth.

"No! My plan was perfect! It was going to work this time!" shouted X.A.N.A. He launched himself forward to grab Seth by the throat, but never made it. Xandra's body started to disappear, with each passing second, more and more of Xandra and X.A.N.A were disappearing.

"It was going to work, I planned it perfectly!" said X.A.N.A as he disappeared.

"Whatever X.A.N.A, next time, pick on someone else more your speed, like a family of snails!" shouted Seth.

"Really?" asked Hayden.

"What? It's the best I could do on short notice!"

X.A.N.A disappeared completely in a puff of smoke, his scream could still be heard for a couple of seconds after he was gone, echoing among the trees.

"So, that was your plan, pretend to beat Hayden up and then break his nose- again?" said Hayden, looking at Seth.

"You like it? I thought it up when I tackled you to the ground!" said Seth, beaming at his twin.

"Like it? You mean you were in control that entire time you chased me around the second time?!" shouted Hayden.

"Yeah, I was fine after Jeremy blasted that first bit of static, I just really wanted sell it." said Seth, proudly.

"Okay, but next time one of us get's controlled by an evil, multi-agent virus, there will be no punching of noses!" said Hayden, and he punched Seth in the arm to make himself feel better.

"Whatever, it won't matter in a second, look!" said Seth, and he pointed to a bright flash that emanated from the direction of the factory.

"Return to the past now!" said Seth, and Hayden punched him one more time before the light passed over them.

The day rewound, and it was time for morning showers once again. Seth was making sure there weren't too many boys in the shower at one time, when the lights cut out once more.

"Oh great, this again?" thought Seth, and he felt around for the light switch. He found it and flipped it. There was Hayden, standing next to the switch.

"What- did you?" stammered Seth. Hayden nodded, and he pulled Seth into a closet near the showers.

"Why?" asked Seth.

"You taught me a lesson." said Hayden, "It's still not okay what you did this morning, but I understand that it's okay to cut loose every once in a while." said Hayden, pulling Seth into a close hug.

Seth didn't know what to say. Seth cried into his brother's shoulder. Hayden calmed Seth down and looked at him. He looked like the little child he saw in himself.

"But if you ever deck me in the nose again, I'll break your arm." said Hayden in all seriousness.

"Whatever!" said Seth, breaking into a smile.

* * *

"Next Chapter: "?"

Hey! You made it! Thanks to my readers, and to my beta reader who helps me edit this, and she was the one who came up with the idea for this chapter as well! If you have any ideas, send me them! I'll write it and post it and you'll be able to say you had a hand in writing this story! How often can you say that?


	18. XANA-itis (Part 1)

Hey everybody! Before we get started today, I have a couple of things I want to announce. I started another story a couple of days ago, which I'm calling -for now- 'Executive Decisions' and is a companion story to this story. I highly suggest you go read it. It is an AU story, kind of '10 years later, what would happen if the Warriors never met...' idea, using my OC's Seth and Hayden, from Ulrich's POV to start. I will be working back and forth between those, so for those of you who enjoy this story, don't worry, there will still be plenty of 'Secret Life' as well as my new original story.

Also, in other news, a couple people have asked me, "Assassinhayd, what the heck do Hayden and Seth look like? And why don't you describe your characters to us?" Well, that's a flaw I have in writing, I don't always describe characters because 1.) I believe that character descriptions take too long sometimes, and 2.) It's only recently that I got a good idea of what I wanted them to look like. And so with that, I set out to show you guys what my characters look like. If you want an idea, surf on over to DeviantART and search for user 'Assassinhayd' (I know...real original huh?) There should be two pictures up already, one is a line drawing of the 'Overboat' that I mentioned a couple chapters back. And secondly, there should another drawing in color that shows you what Seth and Hayden looked like to me in my mind. Read the descriptions, I wrote some things there to explain them.

So, to the chapter!

Chapter 18: "XANA-itis (Part 1)"

"Hey! Are you guys listening to this?" shouted Hayden

Everyone in the factory lab jolted awake, and rubbed their eyes. Everyone had fallen asleep after another long night of fighting XANA, which had turned into a long night of Hayden and Seth fighting each other. Hayden was fed up with Seth not telling him the truth about his nightmares, and the technicality that Jeremy let slip when he was fighting Seth and Xandra. So far, Hayden had gotten almost no where with Seth, and still was arguing with him to the early morning light.

"Will you guys help me here? Seth's being stubborn!" shouted Hayden. Seth was in a corner, mouth clamped close, eyes not looking at Hayden, and brow furrowed in anger.

"What do you want us to do Hayden? If he won't tell you, then it's not our place to say!" said Yumi, standing up and stretching.

"A hint? A clue? An inkling of an idea?! Something?" Hayden fished. Everyone shook their heads. "Guys! I'm worried here that Seth is keeping something here that might affect me as well."

"Guys?" asked Ulrich, and he called for a group huddle. Ulrich also called Seth over, but not Hayden. Hayden spent the entire time circling the group, trying to listen in.

"Seth, this has gone on long enough! You need to tell Hayden everything, and I mean everything!" hissed Yumi.

"I'm not saying a word! He'll flip when I tell him!" said Seth

"He'll flip if you don't! Look at him!" said Ulrich, looking over Odd to see Hayden pacing angrily around the lab.

"I- I- can't! I know Hayden! I know myself! If Hayden was hiding things from me, I would probably be doing the same now, trying to get all that I could to get it out of him!" said Seth, a worried look on his face.

"You can! If you don't tell him, it might end up badly for the both of you, Hayden's acting like this is a matter of life and death!" said Aelita.

"You know why I can't tell him about the technicality! If he found out that we're linked in more ways that just as brothers, he would never take his eyes off me!" said Seth.

"But that's what brothers do! I'm not even related to Odd, and I feel like he's watching me constantly!" said Ulrich.

"Hey! I do not!" said Odd.

"But there's no one better I would rather have watching my back when I'm in danger, or dealing with Sissi even," said Ulrich with a smirk.

"That's what I'm here for good buddy!" said Odd with a smile, and everyone laughed.

"So that's why you have to at least tell him about the technicality. If you don't and he does something stupid that injures or kills himself, it could end up affecting you too, because he didn't know." said Jeremy.

"And that's exactly why I don't want to tell him! If I tell him, he'll stop being fun, and spend all his time being my bodyguard!" said Seth.

"And what is it you're so worried might come for you anyway? Does this have to do with your nightmares as well?" asked Aelita.

"And here we get to the meat of the matter," sighed Ulrich, noticing Seth's fallen look.

"You guys aren't totally wrong there," said Seth quietly. "I- I-"

"Well, don't tell us! Tell him!" said Yumi, turning Seth around and pushing him towards Hayden.

"So? Are you going to say anything this time?" asked Hayden.

"Yeah- but-" mumbled Seth.

"But what?" asked Hayden, shutting down almost instantly.

"I don't want things to change after what I'm about to tell you, whatever it is I have to say, promise me you won't change," said Seth, nervous.

"I'm sure whatever it is, we can face it together. You know that!" said Hayden, opening back up after Seth seemed willing to talk.

"I also don't want you guys to leave," said Seth when he noticed the rest of the group tried tip-toeing away. They sighed and trooped back to the back wall.

"But it's five o'clock in the morning on a Sunday! I should be sleeping in!" said Odd as he flopped back down on the lab floor.

Jeremy pulled out his laptop, and he and Aelita went over some calculations he had done for a new program. Ulrich pulled out a deck of cards from the secret panel in the wall, and he, Yumi, and Odd all played a card game. Seth looked back towards Hayden and he started talking.

"Okay, do you want the bad news, or the worse news first?" asked Seth.

"Is there any good news?" asked Hayden hesitantly.

"Not... really?" replied Seth.

"Okay, I guess I'll take the bad news to prepare me for the worse news." said Hayden. Hayden sat in Jeremy's chair in front of the computer.

"Okay, you know how Jeremy went through the program that cloned me and said that there was nothing wrong with it?" started Seth.

"Let me guess, there is something wrong..."

"Hold on, let me finish!" said Seth, "You're not totally off base there though.

"You and I share a bond that's more than just a brotherly bond. You and I are linked now after that program did a number on the both of us."

"Linked? Like how? Like you can read my thoughts?" asked Hayden, looking around nervously.

"No! Not like that!" said Seth, "Here's the thing, if you die, or I die, then the other dies as well."

"What-how? Huh?" stammered Hayden.

"The program that that doofus Kent punched in made it so that now we literally can't live without each other."

"But-what?"

"And then there's the nightmares I've had- and this is the worse news." said Seth sheepishly. "I haven't been telling you the story. There's something after the courtroom."

"I knew it!" shouted Hayden after being drawn out of his stupor by Seth's confession. "There's no way you would be shouting in your sleep over something as simple as being in your underwear in public!"

"Yeah, in my nightmare, you get... shot," Seth mumbled the last part.

"Wait- I what?" asked Hayden, leaning in to hear what Seth said.

"You- get shot."

"I get shot!?" said Hayden, barely hearing what Seth had to say.

"Yes?" said Seth, trying to defuse Hayden before he went off.

"You conveniently don't tell me that if one of us dies, the other one of us dies? And then you forget to mention that in your nightmares you've had- that I get shot?!" shouted Hayden, drawing everyone's attention. "Why would you keep this from me?! This is really important Seth, this could have been life or death! Why wouldn't you tell me?!"

"For this exact reason in fact," said Seth, his face was stony and he looked like he was going to cry.

"Seth! You know I should have learned this the instant you found out! This is important!" shouted Hayden, almost pleading with his brother now.

Seth couldn't handle it, and he burst into tears. Everyone jumped up from what they were doing to check Hayden and Seth. Hayden jumped up from the chair and hugged the crying boy. Seth hid his face in his brother's shoulder.

"What's wrong Seth?" asked Aelita.

"What's wrong?!" shouted Seth between sobs, "What isn't wrong?! I lied to save my butt, and in doing so, I didn't tell my brother we could die if someone wanted to kill just one of us! And do you know how many times we've faced death in the last month or more! Xandra! Actual acidic rain! Those runaway semi-trucks?!

"And I still have no idea whether my nightmare is real, and it's driving me insane to know whether or not I could be facing an untimely death at any moment!" sobbed Seth, even louder.

"I won't let that happen," said Hayden quietly to Seth. Seth sniffed and looked up from Hayden's shoulder. Hayden had a patch of tears staining the sleeve of his black jacket. Seth gave a sheepish grin and Hayden just rolled his eyes.

"I won't let that happen to you, I won't let that happen to us!" said Hayden, pointing back and forth between Seth and him. Seth smiled and nodded his tear streaked face.

"Who is it that actually shoots me anyway? You make it sound like you know who it is." said Hayden, giving Seth a playful punch on the arm.

"Um- Brock Raymond," mumbled Seth.

"Brock Raymond?!" shouted Hayden, drawing back from Seth. Seth almost looked like he was going to cry again. Hayden laughed and Seth looked at him quizzically.

"What's so funny? This is serious!" said Seth.

"Brock Raymond is in police custody, facing up to a life sentence behind bars!" laughed Hayden.

"So, he's not getting out?" asked Seth, he hadn't been keeping up with the trial as Hayden had been.

"Not a chance! I actually have a- oh crap! What's today?" asked Hayden suddenly.

"Um- It is now Sunday morning, about seven in the morning to be exact." said Jeremy, looking down at the display on his computer.

"Oh, no! I have to be in court in two hours, and I still smell like that sludge!" said Hayden, sniffing his clothes.

XANA's recent attack had taken control of the sewer system pumps at the school and had tried drowning some of them in waves of sludge. Fortunately, most of the students had either gone home to their own homes for the long weekend, or were away from the school at the time, so no one knew about it but them, and Jim, who was still too frightened to admit whether or not the things he had seen were real or not.

"Is this bad?" asked Odd

"Do you really have to be there?" asked Seth.

"Yes! Today is the last day for witness testifying and I'm a witness!" said Hayden, running to the elevator and punching the button.

"I thought you already testified!" said Yumi, joining the rest of the group in the elevator. She, Aelita, and Jeremy all avoided standing too close to Odd, Ulrich, Seth, and Hayden, who had been caught in the waves of sludge.

"I did! But this is the last day, new evidence was brought to light, and I need to be there to see if I need to change my story any to show it." So far, Hayden had been able to get by using the story he had told the police officer when he arrested the gang.

But he was afraid if Brock was able to convince the jury; or for that matter, any of the other gang members that the story was wrong and full of holes, the case would be lost since almost all the gang members had sold information about Brock and his arrest for smaller sentences in prison. If at least one of the gang members turned back, then the story would slowly fall apart until it was realized that Hayden was also in on the gang's activities, and could land him in jail for a long time as well. Hayden knew that so far, he had a good chance of sending Brock and the rest of the gang away for good. And since the entire gang was arrested, there were several more arrests made after the fact as one by one, the gang members sold out members and contacts in other gangs and other black market dealers for more and more deals with the police for leniency once in prison.

With the arrest of their old gang, gang activity plummeted, as did robberies, murders, and assault. Almost half of the infamous gangs in Paris had been arrested, dismantled, or had fled the country after their old gang ratted out most of the criminal life in Paris. And those that had been arrested were being tried in separate trials, and most were already behind bars, with almost no chance for parole. Hayden was considered a hero to the police, and had already received a commendation from the police for his courageous actions. The police were sure to give him the award anonymously, if anyone found out that he was the one that turned in the members, and that in turn, caused the arrest of most of the gangs and criminal low-lives of Paris, there would be more than just a couple of people aiming to take his life.

The ceremony was nice, and was held in a close-door meeting at the police station. Mr. Campbell, the butler Roger, Seth, and the rest of the Lyoko gang were the only ones there. Ulrich and Odd actually tried to put effort into looking neat. Ulrich combed his hair and put on a white shirt. But he left the first two buttons undone. Odd had borrowed a tie from Jeremy, who happened to have several for some reason. And Aelita and Yumi both dressed nicely in pink and black dresses respectively, hair up. Ulrich and Jeremy couldn't take their eyes off of the girls for the ceremony. Hayden got to shake the police chief's hand, and Mr. Campbell said that once everything was settled, he was going to write a book about it, with the names changed of course. Everyone laughed and Hayden and Seth both felt the happiest they had ever been in a long time. Even if Seth hadn't been formally recognized by the police since he refused to be identified at the scene, he knew he still had a part in putting away Hayden's- and partly his- own past.

All the warriors rushed back to the almost empty school. Aelita and Yumi bid farewell to the rest of the group. Jeremy went to his room to check on some calculations he was doing then went to take a shower. Ulrich and Odd went with him and they took the stairs, but Seth and Hayden climbed up the outside of the building. The sludge had gotten Ulrich and Odd, but only barely, they were still bearable, but up to a point. Hayden and Seth however were caught in a full blast, and were incredibly rank. Both climbed up the outside of the dorms until they found their open window to their room. They grabbed things to freshen up, and then headed for the showers.

With no one else there, and a XANA attack just thwarted, Jeremy wanted everyone to keep an eye on each other just as a precaution, so Aelita was staying with Yumi for the weekend. Ulrich, Odd, and Jeremy were already in the showers when they got there. Most students had gone home for the long weekend, or were enjoying it in the town with whatever friends they had. Jeremy, however, had kept them all close by for when XANA reared his ugly head- like he did any time the warriors had a break.

Hayden wasn't used to taking showers in such a public way. He stripped down and entered one of the empty shower stalls. He looked around at the mildewed tiled walls and scowled. He had his own bathroom in the large estate house that his father owned. Seth even had a room and his own bathroom for when the two of them had a chance to leave the school and visit with their father. But with XANA on the offensive lately, Jeremy hadn't allowed the twins to leave to see their father for at least a couple of weeks now. Hayden turned on the water, then leaned up against the wall. He felt something slimy on the side of his face, so that quickly ended that. Hayden stood in the shower stall, head pointed at the ceiling, eyes closed. He was deep in thought, blocking out everything around him as the hot water rolled off his body. Hayden had taken a leaf out of Jeremy's book, and was starting to use shower and other small breaks to think about things that had happened recently.

Seth had mentioned that the two of them were linked ever since that first incident with the scanners created Seth as his clone. Hayden's thoughts drifted as he stood there in the hot cascade of water. No one in their group thought of him as a 'clone' anymore though. Seth had proven time and again that he was a different person from Hayden. They just happened to look the same, and have a lot of the same personality traits, but Seth was definitely a different person. Hayden thought about Seth and that he was keeping secrets from him. He knew that if he had a secret, that he would share it with Seth, there was no way that he would keep vital information from someone like that who he was very close to.

"_But would I really?_" thought Hayden.

He shook his head in confusion. Water whipped around him and off his long, dirty blonde hair. Would he tell Seth if he had a secret like that? Were Seth and him really not all that different like XANA thought? Hayden was afraid that XANA was getting to him after it told Hayden it didn't see a difference between him and Seth after their last confrontation with him and 'Xandra'. Hayden didn't like where these thoughts were going, so he dropped it. His mind went back to the technicality, with this new information, a lot of things made sense now. Seth was right, they had got lucky lately, a couple of XANA's recent attacks seemed targeted right at him and Seth. Hayden was worried that XANA was changing tactics, and instead of turning the two of them against each other, he was trying to kill them both.

His mind drifted around again, and Hayden was back to thinking about Seth and his secrets. Hayden thought of anything he might be hiding from Seth. He couldn't think of anything. Seth had all Hayden's memories as well, that is up until a couple of months ago when he was created, and then they started living out their separate lives. In that time, Hayden hadn't really changed all that much, or done much without Seth near him, so he figured he had nothing to hide. He knew that if he did, though, that he would tell him.

"_Would you? Would you tell Seth your secrets? Your deep, dark, innermost thoughts?_" said a nasty voice in his head. Hayden opened his eyes and looked around, that voice seemed almost too real. He didn't see anything, or anyone, so he closed his eyes again and let the water fall over him.

"_I don't think you would...you would keep quiet about it, just like Seth did..._" said the voice in Hayden's head again. Hayden's eyes shot open this time, and he looked nervously around the small stall.

"_Great, now I'm hearing voices, I must be going crazy!_" thought Hayden.

"_You're not going crazy...Hayden Michaels, or should I say...Hayden Campbell!_" said the nasty voice. Hayden shouted and slipped on the wet floor. He fell down and hit his head on the tile and blacked out. He woke to Seth smacking him across the face. Someone had the decency to cover him up, he just wished the rest of them had taken the time to dress before standing over him.

"Dude! Wake- up!" said Seth, smacking him some more.

"Ow! Seth, cut it out! I'm awake!" said Hayden, sitting up.

"Don't scare me like that!" shouted Seth, "What happened anyway? Why did you fall? Last we heard, it was silent in the shower room, then we heard you shout and fall!" A hint of worry entered his angry tone as he spoke.

Hayden thought about telling Seth about the voice and all that it said. But then, would Seth believe him? Would Seth believe that he had heard voices telling him that he shouldn't trust him?

"Um- nothing, I just slipped on a puddle of soap I was using and hit my head." he said, nervously.

"You slipped on soap?" Seth gave a sniff and smelled the air around Hayden. "Dude, if you were using soap, you should use more. I can still smell that sludge! Be careful this time!" said Seth, and he and the rest of the guys left his shower stall.

"_I knew you wouldn't tell him..._" said the nasty voice, the voice didn't sound strange, in fact it sounded like the voice he normally heard when he thought to himself.

"_What do you want? Am I really going crazy?!_" thought Hayden, trying to talk to the voice he heard.

"_Of course not Hayden Michaels, you are a sane as ever..._" said the voice.

"_Then why am I hearing voices?! Who are you?!_"

"_You can't tell?_" said the voice wickedly.

"_XANA!_" he thought.

"_Yes, it is good to see you again Hayden_," said the voice changing to XANA's wretched tone.

"_What-how?! How are in my head?_" he shouted.

"_You didn't think that slimy thing you put your face in was mildew did you?_" said XANA, with a laugh.

"_But- we just defeated you! How are you able to attack so soon?!_" realized Hayden.

"_You thought that sludge was my attack? No, that was amateur at best Hayden Michaels._" said XANA. "_That was to lay the groundwork of my real attack._"

"_Groundwork_?" thought Hayden. "_Then there's another tower!_"

"_Yes, this is the beginning of the end of you- and Seth._" said XANA

"_The end? How do you know that Seth and I are linked like that?!_" thought Hayden.

"_You just told me_," said XANA. Hayden swore. "_And you and your group need to find a better place to discuss these kinds of 'sensitive' topics other than the factory lab_."

XANA's voice changed, and Hayden heard Seth's voice as clear as day inside his skull, "_I lied to save my butt, and in doing so, I didn't tell my brother we could die if someone wanted to kill just one of us!_"

"_How interesting this was to me...I thought, how could this work for me, I can't turn you two against each other anymore, but I could just kill one of you, and then two problems would be solved!_" said XANA.

"_You can't kill me from in there- oh wait_," thought Hayden, he realized it was XANA he was talking to, and that he could have done anything he wanted to Hayden if he wanted to.

"_Kill you? Now? But I just got here! It's really roomy in here..._" said XANA with a malicious tone, "_No, no, I think I will stay, see what I dig up._" Hayden could feel something shift in his brain, and then he felt excruciating pain. He wanted to shout out in pain, but XANA caused his mouth to clamp shut, and all that came out was a muffled groan.

"_Ooh, like this!_" said XANA, prodding his brain again. Hayden felt the pain all over again, and his mouth clamped shut. Hayden felt like he was going to grind all his teeth to powder from how hard his jaw was jammed.

"_This is fun!_" said XANA. The blonde figured he obviously had a twisted sense of what 'fun' was.

"_What do you want?_" said Hayden, panting a little from the exertion he used to fend off the attack.

"_What do I want? No, no- this isn't about what I want_" said XANA. "_This is to see how much your willing to take before I break you, before I tear your sanity away and expose the raw insanity underneath_," said XANA.

"_What do you mean?!_" thought Hayden.

"_I mean, I'm going to have fun while I'm here, poking-_" said XANA, and he felt something poked at in his brain. Random images flashed in front of his eyes. "_Prodding-_" XANA continued. This time, Hayden felt he smelled all sorts of different smells: cinnamon, lavender, smoke, then the tang of blood.

"_And, JABBING!_" shouted XANA, and he threw himself into the spot in Hayden's brain again that triggered the horrible pain. XANA also clamped his mouth shut, and for the second time that day, Hayden found himself splayed out on the floor, his vision blacking out.

Hayden stood up hesitantly, panting. His head pounded fiercely and his heart was going a million miles per hour. The shower water was still running, and Hayden opened his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood. XANA had caused him to bite down on his own cheek, and now it was bleeding and raw. Hayden watched as the blood mixed with water, and swirled down the drain.

Hayden panted and shook his head. He tried thinking of something to do. "_Then... I can just tell Jeremy, and we can go to the factory, deactivate the tower, and be rid of you!_" thought Hayden.

"_Hmm? What was that? I thought I heard you say you wanted to tell Jeremy!" said XANA, "Now where's the fun in that? No, I think you will keep quiet about this!_"

"_Why would I? I have an evil multi-personality virus in my brain, telling me what to do! I think I would want to get it out before I get sick!_" Hayden growled.

"_Sick? What an excellent idea! You won't tell Jeremy, or I'll make you sick!_"

"_Sick? How are you going to pull that one off? You can't just tell my brain to be sick!_" said Hayden.

"_Like this!_" XANA prodded the part of Hayden's brain that caused pain, and he doubled over again, unable to call out for help. XANA was right, after the fourth time, Hayden was sick to his stomach, he almost felt like his organs were about to come up his throat.

"_Every time you try and do something I don't want, like trying to warn Jeremy, I'll keep pushing- this- spot!_" enunciated XANA. Each time he talked, he pushed lightly on Hayden's pained spot, and Hayden winced as a wave of pain radiated from that point each time.

"_Well Hayden Michaels? What will it be?_"

Hayden sighed and resigned himself, feeling weak. "_You win, I'll co-operate._"

"_That's a good boy,_" said XANA, patronizing.

Hayden sighed. He didn't like accepting terms with an evil virus that was bent on killing him, but if he didn't want to die right there he had to give a little to gain a lot, which was something his dad always told him. He also knew that he had to do something about XANA moving right into his frontal lobe, but XANA had him pinned there as well. He knew if he tried telling Jeremy- or anyone else- he could end up dead. Hayden couldn't see a way out, but there had to be one! XANA wasn't always this perfect, and he always didn't account for one thing. Hayden had to figure out what that 'one thing' was before it was too late. Hayden quickly dressed and then exited the bathroom. Odd was styling his hair, and Ulrich was brushing his teeth. Seth was tying his shoes, and Jeremy was getting ready to leave.

"Jeremy- wait!" shouted Hayden.

"_Watch it Michaels, you know what will happen if you say anything!_" warned XANA.

"_Shut it,_" said Hayden, not wanting to listen to the virus.

"Yes Hayden?" asked Jeremy, turning back to face Hayden.

"Um- Jeremy?" started Hayden, "What do I do? I can't tell Jeremy directly- I gotta send him a message!"

"Um- Jeremy? Have you played Dungeon Masters Four yet? I just got to this new level! It has a really tall tower, called the red tower!" Hayden tried dropping hints.

"_Watch it!_" said XANA, hovering above the pain spot in Hayden's brain. "_You're not warning him are you?_"

"And there were all these monsters! And it took six warriors to defeat the bad guy!" Hayden pushed even harder. Jeremy looked like he didn't know what Hayden was talking about.

"Hayden, that's nice, but I promised Aelita to meet her after breakfast, we were going to talk about a new anti-virus for her. I need to go eat so I can meet her!" said Jeremy, turning to go.

"Wait! I think I need to come with you! I've been having my own virus problem lately!" Hayden went too far, and XANA poked the pain spot.

Hayden stopped trying to communicate to Jeremy almost instantly. Jeremy noticed Hayden flinch, he raised an eyebrow but didn't give it another thought. He shouldered his bag and then walked off down the hall. Hayden was nervous now, he turned to Odd and Ulrich, but they left soon after Jeremy, saying they didn't want to be late for brunch. He turned to Seth. Hayden wanted open his mouth and talk, but he knew that if he tried telling him, Seth would think it was a feeble attempt to try to make him feel better about hiding secrets. Hayden knew that the last person he would tell would be Seth. The clone looked up at Hayden and smiled.

Now he knew what it was like to be Seth, and hide things from the ones he loved. Hayden felt sweat breaking out on his brow. He gulped, then turned and walked away. Seth called out to him, so Hayden tried to stay ahead and pretend he didn't hear him, but Seth was persistent and caught up to Hayden, rounding in front of him to cut him off.

"Didn't you hear me talking to you? How do you feel after what happened this morning?" Seth felt up Hayden's forehead and then pulled back suddenly.

"You feel ice-cold and sweaty! What is wrong with you, are you going to be sick?" winced Seth, a little worried.

"I'm fine! Really, I am!" said Hayden quickly.

"You don't look fine," said Seth, raising an eyebrow.

"Um- now that you mention it, I need to talk to Jeremy!" said Hayden, hoping XANA would let him talk long enough to try and get the message through.

"Jeremy? He's at brunch! We should go there now!" said Seth, taking his Hayden's hand and running with him. He stopped suddenly, and then looked at his watch. "Ooh, wait we can't! It's thirty minutes until you have to be in court, and dad is coming to pick us up to go any minute now!"

"You're coming with me?" asked Hayden.

"Yeah, but not as myself, that would be dangerous! What if someone identified me in court?" said Seth, pulling out a pair of glasses and a false nose and a wig he had bought. "Odd helped me work on the nose in art class! And we bought the wig and glasses," the blonde put on the glasses, the nose, and the wig. "I just wanted to be there for support on the last day!" said Seth.

The glasses made him look nerdy, and the false nose didn't help with that either. The wig was a bright red color, but it looked good on Seth. After Seth put on the disguise, he didn't look like Seth Michaels anymore. Instead, he looked like he should have been related to Herb, or Jeremy even. Hayden had to admit the disguise would have even fooled him. Seth smiled at Hayden and Hayden tried to return it, but he didn't feel good. Seth raised an eyebrow again, but then his phone went off and Seth answered it. It was Roger, their dad's butler. Seth said that they would be right there, and so he pulled off his disguise, and then ran with Hayden to meet their dad.

Mr. Campbell was waiting outside the school, leaning up against his limousine. When Hayden and Seth came up, Mr. Campbell smiled, and stood up tall.

"Boys! So good to see you!" said Mr. Campbell.

"It's good to see you too dad!" said Seth.

Seth seemed to have become one of the family after he was adopted.

"What? You're not going to say hello to your old man?" said Mr. Campbell, looking at Hayden.

"Um- hi dad..." stuttered Hayden nervously.

"Well that's not the welcome I was expecting, you don't see your old man for weeks, and all you can say is 'um- hi'?" pouted Mr. Campbell, hurt.

"Sir? We best be off, or we'll be late," said Roger.

"Oh, right Roger!" said Mr. Campbell, turning to get into the limo. "We'll catch up later then!"

Hayden and Seth piled in the back with Mr. Campbell, and Roger got in to drive. The entire ride to the courthouse, Hayden was quiet. Mr. Campbell and Seth talked, but he stayed silent. They both tried to get Hayden to say something, but Hayden was afraid what XANA would do if he spoke. They arrived at the courthouse with ten minutes left until Hayden was actually supposed to be there. Hayden quickly opened the door and left the limo. Mr. Campbell shouted goodbye at him, and Hayden ran up the steps to the courthouse. Seth got out, thanked their dad for the ride, and tried catching up to his brother. They rushed into the courthouse. Seth caught up to him at the security desk.

"What is going on? Are you nervous about the trial?" he asked.

"Um- yeah, that's it, I'm nervous about the trial..." said Hayden, accepting a name tag from the security officer, handing over his phone, and then he was escorted away to wait for the trial to start.

Seth was didn't know what to say, his brother had acted weird all day. Seth entered the courthouse under a different name, handed his phone to the guard, and then went to find a bathroom. Once he had found a stall and made sure no one was around, he entered it, and locked it. He pulled out the wig, the nose, and the glasses, and then put them on. He checked to make sure no one was looking, then stepped out of the stall. The door burst open as Seth reached it, and Seth gasped, there stood Brock Raymond!

"Keep moving prisoner, you have a court date to meet!" said a guard behind him, and then the guard pushed Brock into the bathroom.

"Excuse me, I need to ask you to leave, we have some criminals awaiting trial that need to use the restroom, and I can't have any bystanders, let alone an unsupervised minor standing around." said the burly guard.

"R-right!" said Seth, and as Brock looked at him, Seth started to sweat. Brock had stopped shaving, and looked terrible, just like in his nightmare. Seth swallowed, and hoped that Brock wouldn't see through his disguise.

"Nice hair kid," snorted Brock, and then he was then shoved forward by the guard

Seth sighed. His disguise obviously worked, and Brock didn't recognize him. He went to wait for the trial to start, just outside the big doors to the courtroom.

"Psst, Seth!" said a voice. Seth looked around and saw Hayden peeking out a door on the other side of the hall. "Seth!" hissed Hayden, and Seth moved slowly to the door.

10 minutes earlier...

* * *

"_So. How you been?_" asked XANA's voice, almost giddy with excitement.

"_Where do you think this will end? You can't spend forever in my head!_" said Hayden, trying to force XANA out anyway possible. Hayden shook his head and tried to get rid of XANA like a bit of water he had stuck in his ear.

"_Nice try, but I'm stuck in here! I only come out if I want to,_" said XANA, mockingly.

"_Then come out here and face me like a- a man!_" said Hayden. He didn't know exactly what to call XANA.

"_No thanks, I prefer to fight dirty if you haven't noticed,_" laughed XANA. Hayden growled and the guard looked up from his paper to stare at Hayden. He grinned, and tried to ease the guard. The man raised an eyebrow, then went back to reading his paper.

Hayden heard jingling of chains and he peeked out the door when the guard wasn't looking. Brock Raymond and the rest of their old gang were walking down the hall. Raymond looked terrible, he had stopped shaving, and it appeared he hadn't gotten much sleep lately.

"_Who's that!?_" said XANA, a bit of awe in his voice.

"_Brock Raymond, he's been arrested, and is being tried with the rest of his gang._" thought Hayden. He couldn't believe he was making small talk with his own worst enemy.

"_The gang you used to run with?_" Hayden was about to ask XANA how he knew that Hayden used to run with this gang, but he figured XANA knew a lot more about him and the others in the group than he was letting on.

"_Oh, this is too good, I've got to do something about this!_" said XANA. Hayden felt a weird tickle in his skull and then XANA split himself in two. The trickle of it oozed out his ear and then plopped on the ground near the door. The blob took off, moving erratically down the hallway. Hayden groaned as the part of XANA left him, and the guard looked up at Hayden. Hayden tried to stop the blob from leaving, but he couldn't stop it in time.

"Hey! Get away from that door! No witnesses are allowed to see the defendants before the trial!" said the guard.

"But- I!" said Hayden, closing the door.

"_Is that guy bothering you? We should do something about that!_" said XANA, taking control of Hayden's nervous system, and then commanding him to walk. Hayden fought him, but his body ached as he tried to fight XANA for control. The virus commanded Hayden's body to stand in front of the guard as he looked up, again.

"Can I help you?" asked the large man.

"I'm sorry!" whined Hayden, and XANA wound up and forced him to punch the guard on the jaw. The guard slipped in his chair- which was leaning- so he fell backwards and hit the ground hard. The guard groaned as he was knocked out. XANA let go of Hayden, and the warrior gasped angrily.

"_What did you do?!_" shouted Hayden.

"_Correction, what did YOU do? You can't prove to anyone that I did that..._" said XANA, pointing through Hayden's eyes at the guard.

"_What do you want!?_" shouted Hayden.

"_Wasn't I obvious earlier?_" asked XANA.

"_Not really_," said Hayden.

"_Not my fault! You can't blame a multi-personality for not revealing his plan right out of the gate._" said XANA, a little preoccupied. Hayden figured he was having trouble focusing on him, and the other half of himself at the same time.

Hayden rolled his eyes. He didn't know what to say or do. The guard was going to be out cold for most of the afternoon. Hayden knew he couldn't call for help, there would be too many questions, and he would likely end up arrested for assaulting someone in a courthouse- and unable to prove it wasn't him, entirely. He also knew he couldn't stay here and let nothing happen because when someone came to get him for the trial, they would notice the incapacitated guard, and then there would be even more questions. Hayden leaned out the door and spied a boy his age with red hair, a large nose, and thick glasses. Then he realized he was looking at Seth. He tried getting his brother's attention.

"Psst! Seth!"

Seth looked over at Hayden and walked over to the door.

"What is up with you today man?" asked Seth. "You've acted strange all day!"

"S...O...S..." mouthed Hayden, hoping XANA wasn't paying attention at the moment

"What are you talking about man?"

"S...O...S...!" hissed Hayden, and he opened the door more for Seth to look into the room. Seth looked over his shoulder and saw the incapacitated guard. Seth gasped and Hayden stopped him from talking.

"XAN-?" started Seth and Hayden quieted him. He only nodded and Seth looked confused. Hayden pointed to his head and then drew the eye of XANA in the air.

"In there?" whispered Seth, pointing to where Hayden had indicated.

"Yes! Finally you get it!" relieved Hayden, quietly.

"But I don't understand, how is he in there, and you aren't possessed?" asked Seth.

"I don't know. I think XANA just moved in, and is in my head, but he's unable to go the way and possess me!" said Hayden, pulling Seth into the witness room. "But XANA is a terrible house guest, and he's been able to do terrible things to my head since he's been in there. Rudimentary, but terrible! Like make me punch this guard!" said Hayden, looking down at the large guard, passed out on the floor.

"What do we do? How do we get XANA out of you?" asked Seth.

"I don't know that either, you need to get a message to Jeremy that there's still a tower activated, and that XANA's in my head!"

"Well, how do we do that? When we came in, the security guard confiscated our phones since they are not allowed in the courthouse!" said Seth. He was right, after the two of them had checked in for the trial, the guard took their phones and told them they could have them back later.

"Well," mused Hayden. "That means that one of us needs to go and warn him ourselves!"

"But who? You need to stay here and testify!" said Seth.

"That's not entirely true," said Hayden with a look of thought on his face.

"What do you mean? You're the only one who can tell them all what happened!" said Seth.

"Again, not true!" said Hayden.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" shouted Seth.

"You were there too, and you know what happened! And it just so happens, that you would be perfect to take my spot!" said Hayden, sizing up Seth and his looks.

"But- what?!" shouted Seth, "Why do you have to go, and not me?! You're the one with XANA stuck in your head, you'd be no good on Lyoko!"

"I'd still be no good here. XANA's still here, and he would probably cause me to reveal things that could send me to jail!" said Hayden, putting his hands on Seth's shoulders. "You need to take my spot, and I need to take yours!"

"How will you get out of here? You are a witness that checked in!" said Seth. Hayden grinned and Seth didn't like where this was going.

It wasn't long until Hayden explained his plan and then traded Seth shirts, jackets, and his disguise he brought for his shirt and jacket. Hayden looked at Seth, and felt like he was looking in a mirror.

"Perfect! Now all you need to do is know what to say if anyone in the court asks you questions!"

"I know, I answer like me, but from your perspective," said Seth, going over the story one more time in his head.

"If anyone tries to ask you about something, like your statement, or a piece of evidence, just turn it around and ask about it in return so you are clear on what they are asking you. You should do fine, I've told you all about this trial for months now, you should have some idea of what to do if certain questions come your way." Seth nodded and Hayden stuck his head out the door. People were gathering now, and most were already in the courtroom. The trial was about to start.

"What I wouldn't give to have my invisibility now," moaned Hayden.

There was a scream from down the hall, and the two looked at each other. Brock Raymond came shambling down the hall, holding his head best he could despite being chained up at the hands, feet, and waist. A guard came rushing forward to subdue the gang member. Hayden figured this diversion would make him as invisible as he needed to be. Hayden slipped out of the witness room when everyone's backs were turned, and tip-toed down the hallway, and back out into the main lobby.

"Hey! Kid, wait!" shouted a voice, and Hayden froze and turned. A lawyer had stopped him and Hayden thought he was done for for sure.

"There's a dangerous lunatic on the loose down the hall, get out while you still can!" shouted the lawyer, and he ran for the door.

"_Why should I have waited for you to give me permission?_" thought Hayden.

Hayden decided to follow the man anyway, and while the security guard that was watching the door was gone trying to see what the ruckus was down the hallway, Hayden looked over the edge of the tall desk, and took one of the phones that looked like his that sat on top. Seth had the same phone, with the same settings, so it didn't matter which one he took. Hayden took a phone, slipped it into his- rather, Seth's- jacket pocket.

Hayden left the courthouse and ran down the steps and across the street to the bridge that led off the large island where the courthouse was, in the middle of the river, and looked around. He was miles from the school, and thus, the factory. His dad was probably already all the way back home, and wouldn't answer well anyhow to him asking for a ride back. Hayden looked around, he saw Notre Dame, and many people and shops. Hayden set off down the street. He was surprised that XANA had been really quiet lately, he was sure he would have come back to gloat about possessing Brock. Then Hayden heard XANA- only, he wasn't talking to him.

"_Okay! Everyone put your hands up! And your valuables on the floor! This is now a hostage situation!_" said XANA. Hayden felt the color drain from his face as he realized what XANA was doing.

"_Hey, you! Don't move! Hey, you in the black jacket! I said. Don't. Move!_" XANA said to someone in the court. Hayden stopped short and gasped.

"Seth!"

* * *

Next Chapter: "XANA-itis Part 2"


	19. XANA-itis (Part 2)

**Hey great people of the internet! I have an announcement to make before we get started. On November 4th, 2012, I will be signing off and I will be leaving the U.S shortly afterwards to go to Canada for two years to serve my church as a missionary for my church. During that time, I will not be able to update my stories, or PM anyone during that time (So please don't try...) Before I go, I will most likely be taking down my stories from the site, and re-uploading them two years from now again when I get back. Although I haven't decided to leave them up yet, let me know what you think.. So if you like my stories, I encourage you to stick around and wait patiently for their return! I appreciate all you loyal readers, for reading my stories of course, and to Redwolf11 for being my beta reader during that time, and to Lunasky198 also for the support and encouragement. Thank you!**

Chapter 19: "XANA-itis (Part 2)"

* * *

Hayden felt the color drain out of his face. Seth was in danger, and there wasn't really much he could do about it. He wanted to go back to the courthouse and face Brock Raymond, but he knew with XANA in both their heads, that he wouldn't stand much of a chance. Hayden moved around erratically, stopping every few steps to look around nervously, and then continue on the path he was on. Hayden was torn between going back to save his brother, or warning Jeremy about what was happening. He hoped Seth would be okay on his own, because he knew what he had to do. The only way to make sure that both he and Seth were going to be okay, was to warn Jeremy and get to Lyoko. Hayden turned and ran for the nearby rail station, pulling out his phone as he ran. Hayden dialed Jeremy's number, and hoped XANA wasn't looking his way at the moment.

"Hello, Jeremy Belpois here." said Jeremy on the other end of the phone.

"Jeremy! S.O.S! XANA is attacking!" said as quietly as he could as he bobbed and weaved through people and cars on the busy streets.

"What? How?!" shouted Jeremy.

"I don't know! I just know that XANA is attacking, and that Seth is in trouble!" he said.

"You're going to have to be more specific than that!" said Jeremy.

"I can't, Jeremy—I can't! You just gotta trust me, and get everyone to the factory! I'm still miles away, but I'm on my way!" shouted Hayden. XANA was still in his head, and he was unsure whether he had heard him. Hayden hung up his mobile, and ran full force towards the rail station.

Hayden didn't feel any pain, so he figured that XANA was still focusing solely on possessing Brock Raymond. XANA had actually been a little too quiet lately, and Hayden was worried that something was going wrong. Hayden ran up to the ticket person of the rail station and tapped on the glass divider of the small stand. The lady behind the glass looked up from her magazine and looked at Hayden. Hayden tried smiling, and he asked her for a ticket.

"Shouldn't you be in school, kid?" she asked, leaning over and looking at Hayden from down her large nose.

"Um… It's Sunday, ma'am..." said Hayden, remembering what day it was.

"Yeah, whatever. Where's your guardian or parent?" asked the train station lady, leaning back in her chair and flipping through her magazine.

"Parent?" asked Hayden.

"Yeah, you gotta have a parent or guardian with you, or their permission to ride alone on the train." said the ticket lady, pointing to a small sign taped to the other side of the glass.

The sign read, 'No Minors Allowed on Train Without Parent/Guardian Consent'. Hayden frowned. He did have a dad, but he had a hard time believing that his dad would give him permission to board a train and skip out on court without a proper explanation. The explanation that he had, he wouldn't be able to say. Not without giving away too much of their secret. Hayden kicked a small stone near the sidewalk into the river and swore. How was he even going to get back home without first pulling a miracle out of thin air? Then Hayden saw something behind the ticket lady in her small stand. There was a small desk bookshelf packed full of books on top of the small area behind her. Hayden squinted and read the spines. Almost every book on the shelf was written by his father! Hayden smiled, getting an idea. He walked a small way off so the ticket lady wouldn't hear him, and called Jeremy again.

"Jeremy! How's it going? You guys at the factory yet?" he asked once Jeremy picked up.

"We just got here, and things are going crazy!" Jeremy shouted on the other end, Hayden could hear the frantic clacking of keyboard keys as Jeremy tried to do his job in aiding the other warriors. "The super scan says that there are four towers activated, but I think XANA threw a bug into the program. I can't tell which one is really real, and which ones aren't!" said Jeremy.

Hayden could tell he was panicking. "Jeremy, I know this might not be the best time, but I need you to do something for me!" said Hayden.

"I really don't have—"

"Jeremy, please!" pleaded Hayden.

Jeremy sighed, and then he responded, "What do you need?"

"Have you finished working on the voice profile for my father for the voice modulator?" asked Hayden.

"I finished it last week, why?" asked Jeremy.

Hayden could tell he was getting suspicious. "I need you to be my father for a second. Think you can do that?" asked Hayden, looking over his shoulder at the train station lady.

"I think I should be able to pull that off..." said Jeremy with his father's voice.

"Perfect…" said Hayden. He then walked back to the ticket stand.

The ticket lady looked up at Hayden and she frowned. "Can I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, my father, _Winston Campbell—"_ said Hayden, putting emphasis on his father's name, "—is on the line. I believe he wants to talk to you," said Hayden, holding the phone up to the window and putting Jeremy on speaker.

"You're the son of Winston Campbell?" said the ticket person incredulously, leaning forward to look at the disguised teen.

"Hello, my name is Winston Campbell, can I help you?" said Jeremy through the phone.

The rail station lady was surprised. "Th-that's really Winston Campbell!" gasped the lady. She had heard his voice before on the news.

"Yes, that's what I told you!" said Hayden, rolling his eyes.

Jeremy vouched for Hayden, and convinced the lady to let Hayden on the train, and even promised her an autographed copy of his next book, all while sounding like his dad. Hayden didn't know how he was going to pull that last part off, but he was grateful that Jeremy could help him out. Hayden paid for a ticket. The lady was about to let him get on for free for giving her the opportunity to speak to his father, but Hayden politely refused and offered to pay anyway. Hayden took his ticket, and pocketed his phone. The train arrived not more than a few seconds later, and Hayden boarded the train headed to Sceaux. The train ride was short, and XANA was oddly quiet. Hayden figured he was scheming or trying to track him down, one of the two. Hayden was sure that any silence from XANA couldn't be good.

The train pulled into the station, not far from the school, and Hayden hopped off. He took a second to get his bearings, and then took off down a small side road not far from the rail station. Hayden passed by a small appliance store once he reached the town proper. There were a couple small TV's sitting in the window, all of them tuned to a different news station. All the news stations were focused outside the courthouse, all of them reporting on the hostage situation. Hayden gasped. A couple of the reporters were mentioning that the hostage takers were negotiating the release of a hostage to the police. Hayden stared intently at one of the screens, hoping his brother would come out. Then, XANA shifted in his mind, and he could hear what he was telling Brock Raymond to do.

"_You! Take off the suit and give it to me!" _Hayden was sure that XANA's new idea couldn't be good.

Hayden couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but Hayden could tell from the side he could hear that XANA was planning on getting Brock Raymond out of there to find him. Hayden stared at the television monitors, just as a person walked out of the courthouse. Hayden couldn't tell who it was, but then a man with a poorly shaven beard stepped out of the courthouse. Hayden knew this was on a news report, and he already knew the end of it.

* * *

Seth watched as his brother took off down the hall towards the exit. One of the lawyers took off after Hayden, shouting like a little girl as he ran down the hall. Seth looked back down the other end of the hall to where Brock had run off. Seth could see ten guards running after Brock. He had a feeling that it would take more than that to subdue a XANA-fied Raymond. Seth eased himself back into the small witness room, and shut the door. He hoped to hide for as long as he could. Seth tried barring the door, and he took cover behind the burly guard that was still incapacitated on the floor of the witness room. He could hear shouting and a commotion outside the door.

Seth could tell that the task of subduing Brock Raymond wasn't going well. People were yelling in pain, and there were a lot of chains rattling. Someone jiggled the doorknob, and when they couldn't get it open, there were two sharp blasts near the door hinges. The door fell into the witness room, and splintered when it fell. The second shot took out the light, plunging the room into darkness. It didn't last for long though. The door fell in, and a member of Hayden and Seth's old gang stepped into the room over all the splinters and shrapnel, holding a shotgun. Seth knew instantly what the two sharp blasts were. Seth thought quickly, and dug through the pockets of the guard on the floor. Seth found sunglasses, and a sweaty bandanna. Seth dug a little deeper, and found a pen. He knew it wasn't much, but he didn't have much of a choice, especially considering he had given his only disguise to Hayden. Seth hid in the shadows and thought up all the ways he could use these three things.

The gang member took a quick look around the room. He saw the incapacitated guard and laughed. He quickly ran out of the room to get the others to see. Seth knew he only had about five minutes until everyone came back in a large horde and would find him for sure. He quickly stripped off Hayden's jacket, and then tied the bandanna around his head to hide his hair, and then he took the ink capsule out of the pen and broke it. He took some of the ink and rubbed it under his eye to make it look like a black eye. Seth then slipped one of the sunglasses' arms into his shirt so the thing hung from the neck of the shirt he was wearing. Seth then wiped his hands on the guard's shirt pocket, and then put the broken pen back in the guard's pocket where he wiped his hands. Seth knew he didn't have much time left, but to really sell the look, he stole the handcuffs off the guard's belt, and quickly did them up behind his back. Seth then flopped down in the corner and hoped he could sell the act he just put on. That is, if he knew what kind of person he just became. Because with his new disguise, Seth was worried he was joining the hostage takers, instead of the hostages.

* * *

Hayden stared at the television screens, wanting to scream in frustration at how gullible the police officers were. The police all ran forward and took Brock back behind their barriers, thinking him to be one of the hostages, instead of the hostage takers. The police took Brock over to an ambulance to be checked over, and reporters swarmed him from the other side of the protective barriers. Brock and XANA were really selling the act. Hayden could hear XANA in his head, and also from the televisions behind the glass. Hearing them in stereo made Hayden want to be sick.

"It was terrible… Some of the prisoners broke free, and incapacitated the guards, and then they took us hostage… They're dangerous! I think that the police should go in there and storm the place!" shouted Brock, under the influence of XANA. One of the paramedics was treating a black eye and a bruise to the head. Hayden was sure he had faked those injuries to make it seem real. All the reporters turned around to finish their reports, and when everyone turned their backs, there was a shout, and the cameras all turned around. The paramedic treating Raymond was on the ground, out cold, and Brock Raymond was nowhere to be found. Everyone gasped, including Hayden. XANA returned to focusing on Hayden and he laughed wickedly.

"_There you are!"_ laughed the virus, looking through Hayden's eyes to see where he had run to. "_I'm coming for you, Hayden Michaels!"_ Hayden gulped and ran. He closed his eyes and just ran, hoping to throw XANA off his trail. XANA laughed again, and caused Hayden to open his eyes. Hayden swore, and XANA clamped his mouth close so he didn't have to listen to Hayden.

"_Now be a good boy and tell me where you are,"_ said XANA, moving Hayden's head to look around for street signs. XANA zeroed in on Hayden's location, and then made him run into the park nearby and freeze from the waist down so he couldn't move.

"_Now you be good, and stay here until I can come fetch you!" _said XANA, leaving Hayden. XANA may have stopped focusing on him, but he still kept hold of Hayden's legs, stopping him from going anywhere. Hayden could still move his chest and arms around. He just couldn't move his legs. Hayden pulled out the cell phone from in his pocket, and tried calling Jeremy.

* * *

Seth sat on the floor for a couple more minutes, waiting until someone came back to find him. Seth could hear laughs and shouts, and five people in prison uniforms walked into the room, over the splinters and shrapnel of the door. The gang member that was in there earlier lead the group, and he pointed to the guard that was out cold on the floor and laughed. The others joined in, until one of them noticed Seth on the floor, in the corner, hidden in the shadows. The laughter stopped, and the group all walked over to Seth and stood over him.

"Who the heck are you?" said one of the gang members, bending over Seth to look at him. Seth hoped his disguise was working.

"I'm, um—" stuttered Seth. He never got around to coming up with an alias while he was sitting there on the floor.

"Can't you see, Al? He's one of us!" said one of the other members, looking at his bandanna, and handcuffed hands. He pulled out a similar looking bandanna, and waved it in the air. The others seemed to agree.

"Yeah! I-I'm one of you! Um…who exactly are you guys?" asked Seth, he hoped to pull off a clueless act, and see how far that got him. But Seth was afraid he was joining the wrong side of this battle here. He wanted to free the hostages and stop XANA, not join up with the group that was taking the hostages.

"We're members of the same gang, we all got arrested, and now we're on trial for crimes we didn't commit!" said one of the members from the back of the group. Seth recognized everyone, but he still couldn't remember their names, he may have had Hayden's memories, but after about 4 months, Seth had forgotten almost everything having to do with their old gang mostly because he didn't figure he would _have_ to deal with them ever again.

One of the guys from the front of the group reached back and smacked the other that pleaded with Seth.

"Cut it out, man! We're not even in front of the judge yet! And you're already crying your guts out!" said the gang member. Seth now knew who he was. In fact, now he recognized everyone in the group. These kooks were a little too weird not to remember, so they stuck out in Seth's memory like a sore thumb. But to keep his identity a secret, he knew he had to act like he didn't know anyone here. Seth's arms hurt, he had never been in handcuffs like this before, and he was regretting putting them on in the first place.

"Can you help a person out here? The guard here handcuffed me when the ruckus started going on, and I think I knocked him out, and now I can't find the key!" said Seth, trying to explain his situation.

"O-oh yeah!" said one the gang members. Seth recognized him as Henri. He bent down and searched the guard, standing up a second later, holding the key in his hand. Seth stood up, and turned around. Henri worked fast, and he had the cuffs off in no time.

"Who are you, anyhow?" asked a boy named Benoit. Seth was ready this time.

"I'm Sebastian Campbell. I got dragged in here to witness for a court case, and I still have no idea whether I know anything about this case or not!" said Seth, full of surety. He really wanted to sell his story. But having dealt with these guys before, he knew he wouldn't have to try so hard, and they would probably all believe him.

"Campbell…Campbell… Where have I heard that name before? You wouldn't be related to that Winston Campbell and his son, Hayden, would you?" asked a boy Seth recognized as Jean. Seth froze. He had forgotten that he was supposed to be someone else, _not_ related to Hayden and his father, but he made a quick comeback.

"What? Him? Man…I wish! Then I wouldn't be living on the streets!" said Seth. Everyone seemed to buy it, but Seth made sure not to press his luck.

"Hey, Sebastian! You ought to come with us! We're busting out of here, and we could use your help!" said the boy, Martin.

"Really? That'd be awesome!" said Seth, everyone raised an eyebrow at Seth's eagerness to join their cause, so Seth tried to defuse the situation.

"I mean…but what are we going to do with him?" said Seth, nudging the knocked-out guard with his toe.

"Eh—him? Just leave him. It looks like you did a number on him, and he won't be getting up anytime soon, if you know what I mean!" said the last boy, Alphonse. Seth gulped. In the dim light, and with all the shadows cast on the guard, the ink Seth wiped on the guard's pocket looked too much like blood. Martin bent down to investigate, and pulled out the broken pen case from the guard's breast pocket. One half of the pen was broken and sharp, and was covered in ink. Martin gasped, and dropped it suddenly.

"Ah, man, Sebastian! You're hardcore, man!" said Jean, elbowing Seth. Seth was nervous now, he rubbed his wrists in anxiety, and also because his wrists still hurt from those handcuffs. Jean laughed and turned to Seth, "Now you _need_ to help us break out! You killed someone, man. That won't look good if the cops bust in here!" said Jean. Seth gulped again. He knew the guard was just knocked out cold, and would probably be that way for most of the afternoon. But Seth was worried what would happen if the guard were to get up and find several prisoners out of custody.

"Man! How'd you do it, Sebastian? I've tried to find a way to kill one of these guards for months!" said Henri. Seth was now officially worried for his life. Their old gang was asking him how he managed to kill someone.

"Um…well…" Seth coughed, clearing his throat. "I thought I just knocked him out!"

"No way, man. You see this?" said Martin, picking up the pen shard and showing it to everyone, "That's blood!"

Seth had to admit, these guys were dumber than they looked. That was something Seth couldn't say about a lot of the people he met. Seth decided to go with it, though. If they thought he killed someone, it might buy him a bit of respect.

"Um…yeah! I meant to do that! The guard handcuffed me to keep me from running away, and then I headbutted him. I guess the pen was in his shirt, and it broke, stabbing him!" said Seth, trying to guess how a pen would even possibly end up as a murder weapon.

Seth braced for the gang's response. He expected to be called a liar, and to be found out any second as his brother Hayden, who he was disguised as, or worse—his real identity as Hayden's clone. But it never came. The rest of the gang nodded in agreement, and Seth wanted to shout in frustration at how gullible these half-wits really were. Seth watched as the rest of the gang nodded in agreement like a bunch of dumb apes, and even Benoit was saying he now knew what to get the jail block guards for Christmas: a pack of pens. Seth sighed and put his head in his hand. The gang members all stood up, and the six of them left the trashed witness room. Before they left, Seth made sure to grab Hayden's jacket. He knew what his brother would say if he lost it. Seth pulled on the jacket, and pulled the hood down low over his face.

The five gang members that Seth had met took him to meet Brock Raymond. Seth tried to resist. He knew that Raymond or XANA would recognize him, and… He already knew Brock! He just didn't want to admit it to the rest of the group. The group pushed the rebellious teen up to Brock Raymond and Seth had a flashback to several months ago. Brock turned on his heel, and looked at Seth. Seth cowered, and pulled the hood of Hayden's jacket even lower. Brock tried looking under Seth's hood, but Seth pulled back. Brock raised an eyebrow, and looked over Seth, and then looked at the five boys behind him.

"Who is this?" said XANA through Brock.

"Sebastian Campbell! We found him in one of the witness rooms. He said he got dragged in here to testify for some trial, and he killed one of the guards!" said Benoit like it was nothing. Seth wanted to turn and punch him. Brock might not have been able to piece together the larger story, but he knew that Brock, after being possessed by XANA, would be able to see right through the holes of his story.

"Sebastian…Campbell, huh? Campbell…Campbell… Where have I heard that name before?" asked Brock.

"We thought that too, but he said he's not related to Hayden or his crack fool of a father," said Martin. Seth really wanted to punch someone now. He may have faked not being related to Hayden or Mr. Campbell, but he didn't know how long he could stand here and listen to people insult the both of them.

"Ah! That's right, Hayden…Campbell…" hissed Brock. Seth could see Brock's eyes light up, and they quickly flashed the sign of XANA, and then went back to normal. Seth pulled back suddenly, and almost ran into the five people behind him. Seth took a tentative step back towards Brock. He could tell both he and XANA were playing it easy so their secret wouldn't be found out. One of the five standing behind Seth spoke up and interrupted the tense moment between Seth and Brock.

"Um… We thought he could help us break out of here, so we wanted to make sure that was okay." said Jean. Seth could tell even after they were all arrested, the gang members still answered to Brock, or they were just trying to play up to him to make up for selling him out.

"Of course!" said Brock, and the other members of the gang cracked evil smiles. Seth was now sweating profusely under the hood of Hayden's jacket. This was not what he wanted, and if the police came in here, there was no stopping them from arresting Seth for helping the gang escape.

"But I need to make sure he doesn't know anything first, so if you'll excuse us?" asked Brock.

He put a hand on Seth's shoulder and guided him to a small janitor's closet near the end of the hall. Seth tried to resist, but Brock was stronger than him, and XANA only helped to make that worse. Seth didn't stand a chance if XANA wanted to be rid of him. He could make Brock say it was an accident, or even just hide it, and make it look like another causality in the process of the hostage taking. On the way down the hall, Seth passed by the hostages where they sat on the floor, lined up on the hallway. Seth tried to say something to them since they all looked so scared and tired, but he couldn't get anything out of his mouth. He was too scared himself.

Brock opened the door of the janitor's closet, and pushed Seth inside. There was a high window on the back wall, lighting the closet. Seth could barely see out the window, but it was almost sometime after noon, by what he could see by the sun. The room was full of shelves as well, piled high in cleaning chemicals. The faint fumes of the chemicals made Seth want to gag and pass out. There were a couple mops stacked in the corner of the room, and a couple trashcans on wheels next to them.

XANA whispered something to one of the gang members, and he nodded and stood guard outside the closet door. XANA laughed and turned the lock on the doorknob, locking them in. Seth wanted to lash out and fight. He was tired of being pushed around by XANA. Seth turned on his heel as soon as XANA locked the room and swung at XANA. XANA however predicted this, and turned with inhuman speed and grabbed Seth's fist out of thin air and held it there in a tight grip. Brock smiled wickedly, and Seth gasped.

"So, _Seth…"_ hissed XANA. Seth gasped and Brock pulled back Seth's hood. "Thought you could fool me? I know Hayden's not here anymore! He's now conning a ticket to a train to go warn your precious Jeremy!" said XANA.

"What? How?" gasped Seth. XANA let go of his hand, and Seth stumbled backwards.

"You think seven kids can get the better of me? I AM XANA! I am and always will be better than you!" roared XANA.

Seth was afraid that someone would hear them and come looking. XANA obviously thought the same. Black tendrils came dripping out of Brock, and hit the floor with a wet sound. They slithered across the floor of the closet and out the door. A second later, Seth heard screams and Brock grinned maliciously. The screaming stopped, and XANA returned his attention back to Seth. Brock approached him, and Seth looked around for a weapon. He snapped the wooden pole off a mop, and held it out at arm's length, hoping to fend off XANA for as long as he could. XANA continued to march Brock Raymond forward. When he reached the end of the mop pole, Brock reached for it, and snapped most of the end off. The pole splintered and Seth dropped what was left of it in surprise.

Seth looked around for anything else. He found a box-cutting knife sitting on a shelf, and grabbed it. He flicked the knife, and the blade extended out of the end. Brock grabbed a similar knife that was sitting next to the other one. Brock flicked his knife, and a similar blade extended out the end. Seth gulped. Brock's knife was a bit longer, rusty, and cracked along the back edge of the knife, giving it a wicked look. He figured it was no coincidence that XANA picked this knife. This one looked almost as evil as XANA was. Seth paced around the room, circling XANA. XANA mirrored his movements. XANA swung at Seth, and he slashed Hayden's jacket and ripped a hole in it from left to right. Seth could see right down to his shirt through the hole. XANA went to slash again, and Seth jerked backwards, hitting one of the shelves in the closet, piled high in cleaning chemicals. Some of the chemicals fell off and broke open on the floor. Noxious fumes started rising from the puddle of chemicals and Seth and Brock started to gag. Brock put away his knife and grinned wickedly again.

"I couldn't ask for anything better! I can kill two birds with one stone, without actually having to put the effort into killing you!" said XANA. The puddle spread, cutting Seth off from the door. Seth tried to cross the puddle, but the chemicals started to eat away his shoes. Seth retreated and wiped his shoes off with a rag to stop them from being eaten away completely Brock went back to the door, and unlocked it. Brock opened the door and slammed the door behind him. Seth heard XANA snap off the doorknob from the other side of the door, effectively locking Seth in the closet. Seth could hear Brock and another of the gang members talking from the other side of the door.

"Boss! Er—XANA…" whispered one of the gang members. Seth barely heard him. "The police cut the power and want to talk to you. They want to negotiate an exchange," said the gang member. Seth recognized his voice as Marcus, the one that beat Hayden to a pulp in a past life. Seth wanted to return the favor, but he knew there would be no way he would exist if it weren't for Marcus, sort of…

Seth also knew there was no way he was going to be able to do anything if he didn't get out of the closet. The janitor's closet was quickly filling with noxious fumes and gases. Seth gagged and choked and he pulled the bandanna off his head and held it over his mouth and nose to try and filter the gasses. The bandanna didn't do much for his eyes though, so he took the sunglasses off his shirt and put them on. They were no substitute for any real protective gear, but given the circumstances, it's what he had. Seth could hear one of the gang members on the phone with the police as he looked around the small closet for a way out. The gang member hung up the phone, and XANA immediately demanded one of the attorneys give him their suit.

Seth acted quickly. He knew that if Hayden didn't die when Seth did, then XANA would finish him off on his own after he left the courthouse. Seth didn't want to die either way, so he had to make sure he got out of the toxic spill, and stopped XANA from doing in his brother before he could do it himself for getting him into this situation. Seth grabbed what was around him and looked at it. The wall of chemicals separated mostly everything from him, so all he had was a few mops and several garbage cans on wheels. Seth looked at the window above his head. He figured if he stacked them, he could easily reach the window and get out.

Seth started stacking the trashcans as Brock Raymond finished his preparations to leave. Seth could hear that gang he had XANA-fied comment on his appearance. Brock was dressed in a light colored suit with fine shoes. Seth could hear the whirring of an electric razor as XANA tried to make Raymond look presentable. Seth gasped. This was just like his dream. Brock Raymond was wearing a suit and fine shoes, and had a poorly trimmed beard. Seth worked faster, his heart rate accelerating from nerves and the fumes that were starting to seep through his makeshift mask. Brock's XANA-fied gang wished him luck, and Brock Raymond left the courthouse. Seth didn't have any time to lose. The closet's door was solid, and had very little room for the chemicals to seep out under the door. Also, Seth figured the gang had blocked the door to keep themselves from being eaten by the chemicals as well. Seth looked to his stack, the chemicals were still a way's off, so he had time before the chemicals caused him any trouble.

Seth climbed up the garbage cans and reached the window. Seth went to throw it open, but it was locked! Seth pounded on the window, but in doing so, he lost his balance. Seth toppled over backwards off his stack and almost landed in the puddle of the growing chemical spill. Seth groaned as he hit the floor. He looked up to see his stack fall down…right towards him! Seth quickly rolled to the right to avoid being hit by the trashcans. Most of the pile landed harmlessly, and Seth sighed. However, one of the cans landed in the spill, and started to melt.

Seth was now left with five trashcans and about three mops, not enough to reach the high window. The light in the room shifted as the day progressed, and a light shone from above on Seth. Seth thought it was the end. Seth looked up towards the light, but then he realized he was looking into the sun, and it was harming his eyes. Seth blinked to clear his eyes, and then looked around again. He spotted a second lower window just above him in a skylight that he hadn't noticed before. It was still too high to jump to, and Seth couldn't climb the shelves, because the chemical spill was still growing. Seth tried think how he could get up there with the materials he had.

Then it came to him! A riddle that Odd had given to him a week ago fit this scenario just right. Odd gave him the riddle each day at lunch, and challenged him to solve it before lunch was over, or he had to hand over his dessert. The riddle went like this: separated from the exit, the only way out was through the ceiling. An imaginary hero used three boxes, three sticks, and two more boxes stacked on top to create a pyramid. The hero used these materials and escaped the room. Seth had scratched his head so many times to solve it, and ended up losing most of his desserts for the last two weeks. Now, in a life and death situation, the answer seemed to come to him.

Seth worked fast, arranging the first three trashcans close together in a triangle shape. Seth then snapped the mop heads off the mops. The chemical spill was getting close to undoing his work, so Seth took the mops heads and stretched them out in front of the closest bit of the spill. The mops were not burnt or melted by the spill, so Seth was proud of his job, and went back to the matter at hand. Seth took the three wooden poles, arranging them in a triangle as well, and overlapping the ends so that they interlocked to form a solid base in the middle of the trash cans. Seth then put the last two trashcans on top of the base he made. The spill was growing too large, eating away most everything in its path. The three mop heads may have worked for the time being, but now they too were absorbed with the chemicals, and now the rest of the puddle was gaining on the trashcans. Seth had lost too many desserts to Odd in failing to figure out this riddle to let a real world example of it go to waste.

Seth looked into the middle of the puddle. The chemicals had eaten away almost all the trashcan in the short time it had fallen into the spill, leaving behind a puddle of liquid plastic and ooze. The fumes started to build again, and Seth gagged as he got another wave of the foul gasses. Seth was afraid that was going to happen to his work, so he climbed quickly. Seth reached the top of his structure as the chemicals started to slowly reach his stack. Seth slid open the window and jumped out the skylight as the pile started to be eaten away by the chemical spill. Seth stuck a head down to look as his hard work was eaten away, and the janitor's closet was filled with the spill.

Seth heard a weird sound and looked around the room. A faulty electrical outlet, not too far off the ground, was starting to fill with the chemical mixture. The outlet was sparking and fizzling too much for Seth's comfort. He might not have been any good at chemistry as Jeremy or Hayden were, but he knew when volatile chemicals reached a source of ignition, like a spark, the resulting reaction wouldn't be good. Seth slammed shut the skylight window, and ran across the roof of the courthouse. A police officer noticed him, and shouted through a megaphone for him to stop. But Seth couldn't stop, he had to get far away as he could from the courthouse. Seth leapt off the roof of the courthouse, just as the janitor's closet went critical. Seth was blown away, and landed heavily on the gravelly rooftop covering of the building next to the courthouse.

The police thought the explosion was the gang's move, and went in to storm the courthouse. Seth could tell that it probably wouldn't go well. Several SWAT team members and police officers against a gang of 20 XANA-fied gang members with nothing to lose would probably be a fight that would be worth watching, but Seth didn't have time. XANA was already ahead of him, and he still had no idea where Hayden was. Seth stood up and rolled his shoulders and knees to make sure everything still worked. He had a few scrapes, but nothing serious. Seth scouted for a way down, and took off across the rooftops of the buildings nearby.

* * *

Hayden stood in the park. His legs and feet had been immobilized for what felt like hours. It felt like having a bad case of when his legs fell asleep. Stiff and unable to move, but much, much worse. Hayden dug through his pockets until he found the phone. Hayden first thought to call Jeremy. He dialed the number for the factory lab, and waited for an answer.

"Hello?!" shouted a voice on the other end.

"Hello to you too, Jeremy…" said Hayden, holding the phone away from his ear. Jeremy was panicking quite obviously. Hayden could tell the situation couldn't have been good. "How goes the mission?" Hayden thought he already knew the answer, but he wanted to make sure nothing had changed.

"Terrible!" whined Jeremy. "Each time Aelita goes in to deactivate a tower, XANA quickly shifts to another tower. And there's still three towers!" said Jeremy.

Hayden could tell he would go to hysterics if he kept on like this. "Jer, calm down…" said Hayden, trying to ease the troubled nerd.

"C-calm down?!" Have you seen the news?! The courthouse just exploded, and the SWAT are battling an army of XANA-fied members of your old gang! And you want me to CALM DOWN?!" shouted Jeremy.

Hayden held the phone away from his ear again, as Jeremy ranted on. Hayden's phone rang on the other line, and he answered it, leaving Jeremy to rant to himself. "Hello?" asked Hayden, nervously.

"Hayden? Or is this Seth?" said the voice on the line. It was his father. Hayden gulped, of all the people that could call him now, his father was the last one he wanted to have call him.

"Um… This is Hayden…" said the blonde.

"Hayden! Thank goodness! I was so worried! I'm watching the news now, and there was an explosion at the courthouse, and the police are in there! Are you okay? Where's Seth?!" demanded his father.

"Um… I'm okay, dad. I got out before the thing started…" said Hayden. He could hear his dad sigh in relief. Hayden listened to what his father said, hoping the news said something about Seth. He wasn't near the store with the TV's anymore, so he had been left out of the loop on what was going on.

"But what about Seth? The news said something about a boy in a black coat escaping the scene before the explosion. Are you sure Seth is okay? Where are you?" His father's tone started to turn from concern to anger.

"Um… I'm sure Seth's fine... If you said that a boy with a black jacket was seen escaping before the police went in, then he should be fine," concluded Hayden, or at least he hoped.

"How can you be sure?! Aren't you the one that wears that black jacket?" screamed Mr. Campbell.

"Yes, dad…" said Hayden. He didn't like where this was going. "I am the one who wears the black jacket. But see, Seth and I traded so I could…um…" Hayden didn't know what to say. If he went on explaining, their father would know their secret. Now he was no longer worried about Seth. Now he was worried about keeping things quiet between him and his father.

"So you could what, Hayden? What is going on here?" demanded Mr. Campbell.

"Look, dad, I would love to tell you, but I can't…" Hayden said. People in the park were starting to look at him as he stood there. Hayden did his best to smile and get them to leave before they tried to help him.

"Look, young man, you tell me where you are now, or heaven help me, I will…I will…" Mr. Campbell started to break into tears. Hayden could hear him sob on the other end of the line.

"D-Dad, Dad, stop. Please, y-you're… Oh, never mind…" Hayden hung up the phone in frustration and the phone clicked back to Jeremy.

Jeremy was still ranting, Hayden held the phone away from his ear and hung up on Jeremy as well. Hayden's phone rang and he looked at the number. It was his father again. Hayden ignored it, and went to put his phone away. As he put the phone in his pocket, it rang again, and Hayden looked at it. It was Jeremy. Hayden answered it, and Jeremy started yelling at him again. He clearly needed someone to get all his anger out at. Hayden sighed and hung up the phone. The phone rang for a third time, and Hayden answered it and shouted into the receiver.

"WHAT?!"

"Hello to you too, sourpuss…" said a familiar voice, his voice.

"SETH!" gasped Hayden. "You're alive! Oh wait…I knew that…" Hayden felt dumb. If Seth had died, Hayden would have passed out and died as well already.

"Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" joked Seth.

"Dad's been calling me…in fact, there he is again…" said Hayden, looking at his phone as his dad called him again on the other line of his phone. Hayden ignored his dad again, and went back to talking to Seth.

"Was he worried about us?" asked Seth, predicting what Hayden was going to say before he even said it.

"Yeah, and of course I couldn't tell him anything," complained Hayden. He understood why Jeremy swore them to secrecy, but he couldn't stand it. He wished he could at least tell his father.

"Yeah…" admitted Seth. He too wished he could tell their father their secret.

"Hey, I'm almost out of time here. I'm using a payphone, and I'm running out of time on my call," said Seth. Hayden was shocked that Seth found a payphone. Things like that were few and far between. "Where are you? And more importantly, where's XANA?" asked Seth.

"I'm in a park near the school, but not the park with the passage, so I still have a way to go," said Hayden. "As for XANA, your guess is as good as mine." It had been a while since Hayden had heard from the evil virus.

"Well, head to the factory. Maybe Jeremy will know what to do to get XANA out of your head," said Seth.

"Um…that might be hard… XANA put me in this park for a reason, and I'm kind of…stuck here…" said Hayden, a little sheepishly.

"XANA has you frozen in a park, so he can come and finish you off?" whispered Seth, so no one around him would hear him.

"Yeah, that's about it," said Hayden. "Can you get your butt over here and help me?!" whispered Hayden. He was starting to draw a crowd again, and he tried to shoo the people away.

"Now do you think my dream was so far-fetched?" asked Seth.

"We don't have time for that! Get over here, before XANA does!" demanded Hayden.

"Yeah…right…" Hayden could hear Seth hang up the phone, and Hayden hung up his phone.

Hayden turned off his phone. Ever since Seth had talked to him, his father and Jeremy had done nothing but call him up to shout at him. Hayden wanted to avoid that for a little while, so he turned his phone off, despite what Jeremy always said about doing just that. Hayden stood in the park, passing the time by counting the leaves that fell from the trees. It was dull, but it kept him from going crazy as he stood there. The sun started to set, and Hayden was growing worried. It hadn't taken him this long to get back home, so it worried him that Seth might have gotten tied up, and that both Brock Raymond and XANA were loose on the city.

* * *

Seth hung up the phone and looked around, he had no idea how he was going to help Hayden. He took off down the block, looking for anything to help. Brock was probably already at that park, finishing off Hayden as he bumbled about without a plan. But he wasn't dead yet, so he figured as long as he was still alive, Hayden was too. It was a bit of a steep way of telling if Brock still hadn't caught up to Hayden yet. And the penalty for not getting there in time meant that he would find out shortly afterwards, with his own death.

Seth wanted to find something, but nothing came to him. He couldn't drive, so finding a car was out of the question. He also didn't have any money for a taxi, and the police blocked off most of the roads leading out from the courthouse. A train wouldn't work either, since it would take too long to wait for the next train to Sceaux, and it was bound to be blocked off too. Running would take too long, and give XANA the time he needed to find and finish off Hayden. Seth walked out into the street to look around, and was almost hit by a bike courier.

"Watch it man!" shouted the courier.

Apparently, mail was still going on as usual, or the courier had found a way to sneak into the area. The courier hopped a curb, and parked his bike and locked it to a streetlamp. The courier gave one more look to Seth. He scoffed at Seth, and walked off with several parcels in hand. The courier looked at his bike and said something to Seth about paying for getting in his way. Seth suddenly got an idea. He knew how to pay back the courier. He ran up to the bike and looked at the lock. It was simple, and could have been easily picked, but Seth realized Hayden was usually the one who carried the lock-picking tools. Seth stuck his hands in his jacket in defeat, and was about to walk off to find something else, but then his hand brushed something. It was Hayden's lock-picking kit. Seth realized he was wearing Hayden's jacket, and he usually carried the tools in his jacket.

Seth grinned and ran back to the bike. The courier could be seen inside the building, arguing with someone. Seth figured he had all the time he needed. He bent down, and soon he had the bike free from the streetlamp. Seth mounted the bike just as the bike courier exited the building. He saw Seth, and went to chase him. Seth took off in a squeal of tires, and left the cross courier behind.

"Sorry! It's for a good cause!" shouted Seth as he took off. He could hear the courier curse at him.

Seth took off across the bridge, and stopped halfway. The police were set up at the end of the bridge, stopping traffic from coming on the island. Seth knew he could just walk past and expect to be left alone. He also knew that he couldn't just sit there. The courier was catching up to him to reclaim his bike, and this bridge was the only way back home. Seth made his decision, and wound up and peddled as fast as he could. He tore past the police barricade, and into town. Seth could hear sirens as he left the police behind. The sirens grew louder, and Seth knew he had to lose the police before he found Hayden.

* * *

Hayden stood in the park, and watched the sun grow lower on the horizon. People had come up to him regularly, asking him if he was okay. Hayden lied, and said everything was fine. He was just standing there, admiring nature. The position that XANA had frozen him in was a little awkward, his legs were far apart from each other, XANA had frozen him in mid-run. He even had a group of people think he was leading a yoga class, until the class realized he really wasn't their teacher, and that he was just standing there. Hayden sighed, Seth was taking his time, and so was Brock Raymond. It was getting late in the evening, and Hayden still hadn't been freed from XANA, so he figured the fight on Lyoko still wasn't going well.

Suddenly, he heard a rustle of leaves and something solid was pushed up against the back of his head. Hayden gasped, and threw his hands in the air. Brock Raymond had caught up to him at last.

Seth tore off down side streets and alleyways trying to lose the police, but no matter where he went, they were always there when he ventured out onto the main roads. Seth's lungs hurt as he heaved air into them. The bike was still slow, but he knew it was at least faster than just running there. Seth figured he knew what park Hayden was in, and he made his way to it as best he could. Seth ducked into another alleyway and slowed the bike just as he passed by a small gap between buildings. The tires screeched as Seth pulled the brake handle, and he slid into the small gap. Seth hid in the shadows, pushing the bike behind him as he hid so it couldn't be seen.

A police car drove slowly down the narrow alleyway, scanning for Seth. Seth hid as far down as he could, and the police car passed by him without seeing him. Seth could hear radio chatter reporting that they lost him, and the dispatcher told the officers to return to the courthouse. The police car took off, and Seth sighed. He inched his way back down the alleyway and mounted the bike. Seth had successfully lost the police, so he went on his way, peddling hard to get to Hayden before Brock Raymond did.

Seth finally reached their neighborhood, and he turned down the street of the park where Hayden was. The fall leaves crunched under the wheels of the bike, as Seth rode through the park. The park was larger than Seth anticipated, so Seth had a hard time finding his brother.

Hayden stood in the pile of leaves, arms raised high in the air in surrender. Brock had obviously held onto a pistol that he had stolen from a guard back at the courthouse. But Hayden didn't know that, he only assumed it. He didn't know if XANA had a gun, or something else more sinister pointed at the back of his head.

"Do you know what this is?" asked XANA.

Hayden wanted to buy some time, so he lied. "Um…no, I can't see it…" It wasn't completely a lie, but he figured it was either a gun, or something worse.

"This is your end, Hayden Michaels. I have a score to settle, and you could say I have a bullet with your name on it…" said XANA. Brock Raymond laughed, and pushed the gun harder against the back of Hayden's head. Hayden now knew it was a gun. XANA wouldn't have used such an awful pun if it wasn't a gun.

"Where's your brother? I wanted him to see this, but if he's not here, I figure he'll find out he failed soon enough…" Brock Raymond laughed again, and pulled back the hammer of the gun. Hayden could hear the 'click!' and he felt the color drain out of his face. He figured if this was the way he was going to die, it couldn't be so bad. The sun was setting with colorful hues, leaves were falling, and he could hear a bicycle. _A bicycle?_ Hayden wanted to turn around and see what was going on. He could hear crunching leaves, and a rapid breath

"You want me XANA?! HERE I AM!" shouted Seth.

* * *

Seth vaulted off the bike and crashed it into Brock Raymond, and knocked Hayden off his feet as well. Brock Raymond went sprawling into the leaves and dirt. The bike rolled a couple more feet, and then came to a crashing halt near Raymond. Hayden fell over, unable to do anything to stand up. Seth shot up from his dramatic entrance and looked around. He could see Brock Raymond sprawled out on the ground, trying to recover consciousness, but he couldn't see Hayden. Seth called out to him, and he heard him call out from somewhere near his feet. Seth looked down and saw Hayden, frozen from the waist down, lying on the ground. Seth gasped and helped his brother up. Hayden sat up and spit a mouthful of brown leaves out of his mouth. Seth apologized, and his brother glared at him.

"Can you move?" asked Seth.

Hayden wanted to scream. He started pacing and ranting at Seth. "NO! Of course I can't move! XANA's held me here for hours in this position! I couldn't move unless my life depended on it now!" Seth cleared his throat and tried to stop Hayden, but Hayden was fed up with people yelling at him all afternoon. "And I've had it up to here—" said Hayden, reaching to a point above his head, "—with people today! I just wish everyone would drop dead and leave me alone! Would you stop moving while I'm trying to talk to you Seth?! It's really distracting!"

"Um… Dude, you're the one that's moving…" said Seth, pointing down to Hayden's restless legs.

Hayden gasped and apologized to Seth. Seth playfully punched him on the arm, and the two took off for the factory. Hayden stopped before they left though, and aimed a swift kick for Brock Raymond's head. Brock groaned and passed out again. Seth picked up the gun and threw it in a nearby trash receptacle. The two of them left the park, and made a beeline for the other park, the one near their school. They reached it as the sun started to fade. Seth pulled open the manhole cover on the secret passage, and the two brothers slipped inside, sliding it shut behind them. The two took a quick breather at the bottom of the passage, and then ran off in the direction of the factory.

The first time the twins had gone to the factory to fight XANA, Yumi and Jeremy wanted to know what they would use to get to the factory, since they still hadn't found their own rides. Aelita and Jeremy had scooters, and Yumi, Ulrich, and Odd all had skateboards. The twins simply answered them that they would run to the factory, using parkour. Ulrich was unsure they could keep up with the five of them, and still be ready to fight XANA.

"Watch us…" Hayden had said simply, and the two of them took off down the passage, faster than the five of them were on their rides.

Ever since that day, Seth and Hayden always ran to the factory, leaving the other warriors in the dust, and they were still able to work normally on Lyoko. Today was no exception. Hayden and Seth took off like rockets. They didn't know how long XANA and Brock Raymond would be unconscious, so they wanted to get where it was safe before that happened. The other five sets of wheels were already gone, so Hayden and Seth figured they all were already at the factory, trying to fight their slippery foe. Hayden took off first, and Seth followed closely after, giving his brother enough lead time to do anything, and still not hit Seth in the face if he did decide to do any parkour tricks.

The two brothers sprinted down the sewer pathway. They reached the stairway, and Hayden vaulted down and Seth ran down the wall to the next level. They came to the gap next. Hayden always felt like he was going to fall in at this point, so he made extra effort not to. Hayden did a front flip, landing on both feet, and rolling to break his fall. Seth did a 360° spin and landed and kept running. The brothers reached the ladder, and Hayden jumped and grabbed on the third rung up. Hayden used his upper body strength and started to climb up the ladder, when his arms started to tire, he switched to leg power, and climbed the rest of the way up. Seth followed closely behind, jumping to reach the fourth rung, and pulling himself up.

The two twins ran into the factory and swung down a level to the large freight elevator in the center of the ground floor. Hayden pushed the button, and the elevator whirred to life, rising up to meet them. The door slid open, and Hayden and Seth got in. Seth punched the button to go down and the elevator descended into the depths of the factory. The elevator stopped, and Seth punched in the code to enter the lab. Jeremy was sitting in the chair in the middle of the lab, fingers working furiously to keep up with maintaining the functions needed to keep the warriors safe on Lyoko. Yumi was already there in the lab, next to Jeremy, the two boys figured she was the first one devirtualized. They heard the cool down noise come from the scanner room, and they could hear Ulrich swear about being devirtualized.

"There you two are! Finally! Get down to the scanner room! Odd has 50 life points left, and Aelita still has two towers to deactivate!" said Jeremy. Seth went to punch the button, but Hayden stopped him. Jeremy looked up, and questioned why they were still there.

"Look, Jeremy, XANA's in my head, and I don't think going to Lyoko with him there would be such a good idea…" admitted Hayden sheepishly.

"What—? XANA's in your—?" asked Yumi.

"Look, we don't have time! Odd's just lost another ten life points, and if Aelita loses all of hers, it's game over!" pleaded Jeremy, on the edge of hysterics again.

"Jeremy, Brock Raymond escaped police custody. We stopped him from putting a slug through Hayden's cerebral cortex, but we didn't have time to make sure he got arrested again. He could wake up, and take out his anger out on the closet target he knows," said Seth.

"So? If anyone sees him, they'll call the police and he'll get arrested!" said Ulrich, coming up through the hatch in the floor.

"No, it's not that simple. He's possessed by XANA too!" shouted Hayden, growing impatient.

"And how did that happen?" asked Yumi, crossing her arms in doubt.

"He…may have—um—split himself and slipped out of my mind and possessed Raymond while I was at the courthouse…" said Hayden quickly and quietly.

"WHAT?!" shouted Yumi, Ulrich, and Jeremy.

"Yeah, and with XANA stuck in his head too, Brock could wake up and start terrorizing the school. It's the only other place he could go…" said Seth, his eyes pleading.

"Do you think Odd could hold out long enough for us to evacuate the school? We couldn't risk anyone dying on us..." pleaded Hayden. He was tired of arguing with Jeremy.

Jeremy sighed, and put his head into his hand. "Why you? Why not Yumi, or Ulrich?" asked Jeremy, lifting his head to look at the concerned twins.

"No one would believe them!" argued Hayden. Yumi and Ulrich looked upset, but Hayden explained. "It's true, you two have warned the school about impending doom before, haven't you?" he asked. Both of them nodded, and Hayden went on. "And no one believed you?"

The two nodded again. This time, their looks fell as they admitted it. "See? No one believes you, but if Seth and I were to tell them, they would leave the school!" said Hayden.

"And why's that? You just going to wave a magic wand and make everyone disappear?" asked Yumi, folding her arms again.

"No! We're dorm monitors. It's our job to warn people about danger!" said Seth.

Jeremy sighed again, and nodded his head. "Okay, but when you're done, I want Seth back here on the double to help backup Odd!" said Jeremy. Seth agreed, and the twins ran back to the school as fast as they could. Hayden pushed the manhole cover back over their secret passage, and Seth bent over to catch his breath. Hayden leaned up against a tree and gasped out a sentence, but he was still too out of breath to talk. He took a deep breath and talked again.

"Every… Everyone will be back and at dinner!" gasped Hayden between breaths. "And some might be in the dorms. We need to warn Claire and Emily as well!" said Hayden, gaining his breath back.

"Right. I'll take the dorms, you go warn the people at dinner, and then I'll go warn Delmas and Jim!" gasped Seth, standing up straight.

"Right!" Hayden and Seth split up. Seth stood outside as Hayden went into the cafeteria. Hayden went in and drew everyone's attention. He made up some scenario, and it obviously worked since people got up from their seats and started filing out of the cafeteria. Hayden joined Seth back outside and Seth asked him what he said.

"I told them that there was something in the food that would cause them all to throw up if they didn't get up and leave now and that the school needed to be evacuated so that the disease control people could come in and decontaminate," said Hayden.

Rosa stormed out last. She didn't look happy. Hayden tried grinning at her sheepishly, but she gave a, "humph!" and stormed off with the rest of the kids to watch over them, since here were no other teachers nearby. Seth high-fived his brother, and took off towards the dorms, while Hayden went to warn the teachers and Mr. Delmas.

Seth reached the dorms right as night fell. It was dark and calm, and Seth looked up at the stars before he went in, just to gaze at their beauty. Seth ran up to the next level and knocked on the door of Claire and Emily. Emily answered the door and smiled.

"Seth! What are you doing here? Something wrong?" she asked, pulling on a bathrobe. She had obviously just gotten out of the shower.

"No time to explain, Emily. You need to check all the girl's dorms and evacuate them. Something might go wrong, and I need to make sure the school is empty before it does," said Seth. Emily looked worried, but she went back into her room and knocked on the bathroom door anyway.

"Claire, we need to go. Seth says something might go wrong, and we need to evacuate the girl's dorms!" she shouted over the roar of the water. The water shut off, and Claire stepped out in a bathrobe. Her hair was still dripping wet, and she didn't look happy.

"Okay, let's go…" sighed Claire. Emily still looked worried, but Seth was happy. All he had to do was make sure that the boy's dorms were empty, and then return to Hayden. It was a piece of cake!

Seth ran up the stairs to the next level. He pulled out a key and inserted it into the first door. Seth and Hayden, their first day as dorm monitors, were given a special key that unlocked all the doors in the boy's dorms, and told to use it only in an emergency. Seth figured an eminent XANA attack was emergency enough to check people's rooms. The first six rooms were empty, and Seth skipped over Jeremy, and Odd and Ulrich's rooms, since he knew they were empty. Seth reached the end of the hall, and found Theo sitting on his bed alone. Seth got him up, and out of the dorms with little trouble. The real trouble came when he found Herb and Nicholas still in their dorm room. Herb refused to go unless Seth gave him a good reason, and Nicholas just followed Herb's example.

"Look! I told you, you can't stay here!" shouted Seth.

"And why not? Give me one good reason!" demanded Herb.

"Yeah, what he said!" said Nicholas.

Seth sighed. He didn't know how long it would take Brock to wake up, and XANA to find the school, but if Seth had to guess, they were running out of time. He knew the poisoned food trick wouldn't work with these two. It looked like they were getting ready to go down and eat. He also couldn't just convince them 'something' might go wrong, since they wanted a specific reason. Seth also couldn't give them the reason, since it would raise too many questions. Herb was ginning. He figured he finally got Seth caught, and he was going to press for answers. Just then, a girl's voice came up the hallway.

"Seth? Seth? Where are you?" Emily was looking for Seth. She peeked into Nicholas and Herb's room and smiled. Seth suddenly got a brainwave. He ran to the door and kissed Emily! Herb and Nicholas were taken aback, and quickly left the room.

"If you wanted some privacy, all you had to do was ask!" said Herb, and he and Nicholas took off to find Sissi.

As soon as Nicholas and Herb were gone, Seth pulled away, and Emily blushed.

"Gee, Seth, is this because of the whole 'end of the world' thing'? Because I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I like Xavier." she blushed again. "But if I stop liking Xavier, I know who to call…" said Emily with a wink. She tightened the ties on her bathrobe, and left the dorms. Seth stood there dumbfounded. He couldn't believe he had just done that. But he couldn't lie, he had actually liked it. Seth checked the dorms one more time, and found all of them empty. Seth then left the dorms, and crossed the courtyards.

Something felt right about all this. For once, they had thwarted XANA, or so he hoped. Seth sniffed the air. He smelled the rich aroma of the night, mixed with the smell of flowers. Seth saw Hayden a ways off, walking towards him across the courtyards. He went to wave, but stopped. Something felt too real about this. Seth froze, and looked around. He couldn't see anything but Hayden. Seth tried to stop Hayden, but Hayden obviously couldn't see him in the dark. Hayden kept walking, oblivious of what Seth saw. From the corner of the Science building, a man stepped out of the shadows. He raised his arm into the air and held something out at arm's reach. Seth stood rooted on the spot. His nightmare was coming true! Then it hit him…his nightmare was coming true, and he had to do something!

Brock Raymond stepped out of the shadows, gun raised. His eyes were replaced with the mark of XANA, his face contorted into rage. Hayden carried on oblivious to the matter. The whole world seemed to move slower as Seth tried warning Hayden, but it was too late. The shot rang out, and the bullet hit Hayden in the back. Blood spurted from his wound. Hayden called out in pain and fell on the ground, clutching his chest. Brock Raymond smiled triumphantly, but then he grabbed his head in pain, and fell over too. Seth was confused by this turn of events. He didn't have long to think on the matter though, because his heart gave out, and Seth fell on the ground hard. His breath caught in his chest, and he passed out as the air escaped his lungs in his last breath.

Seth saw a light, and his brother moving towards it. Seth wanted to stop his brother, stop him from going. Seth opened his mouth to talk, but he couldn't. Instead, he could hear shouts and cries coming from behind him. He and his brother turned around. Hayden walked back to Seth. He didn't say a word, but instead he looked to Seth, and then took off in the direction of the voices. Seth followed after. He was so tired, but he knew he had to keep running. Hayden slowed and Seth caught up. The two of them were just so tired. Seth thought he was never going to make it. He stumbled and fell. Hayden stood over him, and offered a hand. Seth took it, and the two of them kept running.

* * *

Okay everyone! I hope you enjoyed my story! This is not the end! Not by a long shot! I couldn't just leave Seth and Hayden in limbo, and not let you find out what happens. Unfortunately, I AM leaving the country in four days, and will be unable to post, update, or PM anyone, or respond to reviews, so please don't try...I WILL be back, and I will pick off where I left off. So don't be discouraged, just think of it like a really good TV show that's going away for a while, and is will come back. (Just like Code Lyoko is going to this next year!) Anyway, thanks again to you my readers, and to Redwolf11, and Lunasky198 for being beta readers, and supporting me through this process. I hope to come back and get right back into work, so stay tuned! Sorry to leave you with such a cliffhanger!


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